Politics and Poetry of Cinema in the Age of AI

How can film and machine learning work together to deliver poetic and socially impactful stories?

• 30. Aug. - 24. Sep. 2021
• Based in Berlin, Germany
• Four weeks, full-time program
• Small class of participants

Film, in its ability to evoke empathy and action in an audience, can bring narrative and soul to the often cold sterility of technology. But what can technology, specifically machine learning, offer in return?

As deepfake technology ripples ubiquitously through our newsfeed, we increasingly turn a sceptical eye to the media we are consuming online. In this experimental class we want to put machine learning technology into the hands of artists in order to reclaim and reappropriate it as a tool for creating empowering political and social commentary. What is the potential for machine learning assisted filmmaking to become its own art form, providing an unexpected new language to poetically provocate on the world around us?

In this program, we will start with filmmaking as a visual art form and political tool in its own right. What aspects of a story make a film political? Is the personal always political? These discussions set the foundation and will carry on throughout our month together as we hear from filmmakers with their own unique perspectives and bodies of work.

Additionally, throughout the month you will learn a range of techniques involving generating and manipulating images of human bodies and faces, including creating imaginary people and deepfakes, compositing them into other images or video, as well as making them talk with audio speech generation. In parallel to technical teaching, we will be hosting a guest lecture series, inviting filmmakers from around the world to share their experiences of using cinema as a political tool.

The goal is to provide the inspiration and tools for participants to begin telling their own stories, using computer assisted filmmaking to build connections and create communities in the face of structural injustices. How can empathy splinter out of the screen and into social action?

Who is this program for?
This program invites artists, designers, creatives, technologists, filmmakers, writers, researchers, journalists, activists, and anyone with a curiosity to think critically about the ever-evolving relationship between filmmaking and machine learning to connect and collaborate with a group of like-minded creators. No prior experience needed.

Pricing
Artist / Student (Full Time)*
€1825 early fee**, €2195 regular fee

Freelancer*
€1955 early fee**, €2395 regular fee

Professional*
€2125 early fee**, €2595 regular fee

For more information please visit:
http://schoolofma.org/politics-and-poetry.html