Filmmakers, activists and cultural institutions create innovative forms of narration and expression with their works, exhibitions and actions and thus achieve an important impact on the way to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In the following, we present some special examples from our conferences.
Pinto & Ada - the game adventure of an unequal duo that sets out to protect the rainforest and save endangered animals from the clutches of gold miners.
Julia Fischer studied interactive media with a focus on conception at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg. Her personal focus was on games. Already during her studies she worked on several games projects and was very interested in developing exciting and empathetic stories as well as concepts.
From 2014 to 2015 she worked at Deck 13 Interactive in Frankfurt am Main on the games "Lords of The Fallen" and "The Surge" as a QA tester. After graduating in 2017, she moved to Ubisoft in Mainz, where she worked as a content and game designer on the development of Anno 1800. Since 2018, Julia Fischer has been working at Zeitland media & games in Ludwigsburg, where she is a game designer and occasional QA tester.
The documentary TRUTH DETECTIVES, which was screened worldwide at numerous documentary and human rights film festivals including the Hofer Filmtage, Cinéma vérité - Film Festival Iran, WATCH DOCS Human Rights in Film Festival Poland, Movies That Matter Film Festival The Hague and Margaret Mead Film Festival New York, focuses on the investigation of human rights violations.
Produced with the support of the Digital Content Fund of MFG Baden-Württemberg, the computer game TRUTH DETECTIVES - A VERY SERIOUS GAME is being created in collaboration with Raphael Perret and Studio Fizbin to accompany the film.
Anja Reiß works as a freelance author and director in Berlin, Freiburg and Zurich. In addition to developing and realizing documentaries, she also conceives transmedia and interactive formats. She also realizes reports and documentaries for public broadcasters and produces contributions for magazine programs such as WISO, aspekte and nano. She is a member of AG DOK and a scholarship holder of the Karl Steinbuch and Robert Bosch Foundations. Raphael Perret studied interactive media and scenography. In his research-based artistic practice, from which works in various formats emerge, the tension between physical and virtual space is a continuous theme. He applies his acquired knowledge of narration in space to the planning, design and implementation of media installations in exhibitions, smartphone applications and games. He was authoring artist for the interactive film 'Late Shift' by ctrlMovie.
The graphic novel Unfollow is about a young social media influencer and environmental activist who becomes the leader of a global ecological movement by writing an app, among other things. The book addresses the mechanisms of personality cult and discusses the ecological and social upheavals that we will be confronted with more and more in the future.
Lukas Jüliger, born in 1988, studied illustration at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg and at ENSAD in Paris. In 2013, he debuted with the enigmatic coming-of-age narrative "Vakuum" at Reprodukt and was critically acclaimed as a promising new talent. In 2018, "Berenice," an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation in a modern guise, was published by Carlsen Verlag in the "Die Unheimlichen" series curated by Isabel Kreitz. With "Unfollow," Lukas Jüliger presents his most extensive work to date.
The feature film series "Aruanas," a fictional series that has reached 33 million people, tells the story of four women who fight for the Amazon rainforest while dealing with their personal problems.
Filmmaker Estela Renner is co-founder of Maria Farinha Filmes, where she is a writer and director of films, shows and television series to help promote social and environmental change. Her inspirations are very closely related to the SDGs as she strives for equality, justice, inclusion, environmental rights and more. She also cares deeply about the urgency of cultural change and sees the importance of play at all stages of life. Estela Renner lived in the United States for seven years, where she went to the University of Miami (MFA - Motion Pictures, 2003) and began her work as a filmmaker. Back in Brazil, she began to dedicate herself to promoting social and environmental causes through audiovisual works. Estela wrote and directed documentaries such as "Far Beyond Weight", "Target Market: Children" and "The Beginning of Life". She created and directed five seasons of the series "Young Inventors" and is creator, writer and general director of the feature film series "Aruanas", a co-production of Maria Farinha with Rede Globo, who together are already producing the second season of the series. Among the topics of her work are: early childhood development, gender equity, obesity and the food industry, the importance of play, the Amazon rainforest, inclusion and more.
Becoming Terrestrial: Of Landing in the Critical Zone - How can an art exhibition invite us to radically question our view of the world? At the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, the exhibition "Critical Zones. Horizons of a New Earth Politics" challenges us to rethink our own position - among slimy bacteria, under the ground, surrounded by treetops, entangled and connected with other living beings. An invitation to "become terrestrial."
Barbara Zoé Kiolbassa M.A. is a research assistant in the Museum Communication Department at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. There, her focus is on the conception, management and implementation of participatory mediation projects around the exhibitions and (research) topics of the house. In addition to her work at the ZKM, she is also active as a freelance curator, art mediator and speaker. Values of community and participation are close to her heart in all projects, as well as the fundamental question of the conditions under which people can come together.
Spaces of belonging - How do human emotions work? And how do we interact with the architecture around us? As technology enables passive space to become active participants, how can a space best showcase our creativity, productivity, equity, and belonging? Triggered by a global pandemic, we are fundamentally reevaluating what it means to come together in a shared space.
An experienced designer by trade, Sophie Kleber applies her deep understanding of the emotional evolution of automated assistants and artificial intelligences to her work with voice UIs, sentient computing, and spatial design in her work as Head of Spaces UX at Google in NYC, where she is rethinking the way we interact with physical spaces. Sophie Kleber holds degrees in product and communication design. Her work for clients such as IKEA, Goldman Sachs and Thomson Reuters has won numerous awards. She is a regular speaker at the House of Beautiful Business, SXSW and occasionally writes for the Harvard Business Review.
Prof. Frederic Leymarie has been based in London, UK, since the fall of 2004. He works in the Department of Computer Science at Goldsmiths University of London to develop and contribute to new (or less explored) areas of research and teaching in computing and beyond.
Following the launch of a new MSc in Arts Computing and the introduction of Evolutionary Art pioneer and game designer William Latham to the aforementioned department, they launched the first MSc in Computer Games Programming in Greater London in 2008. This activity is now complemented by an MA in Computer Games Art and Design. Both programs are industry-focused; more than half of the faculty they recruited are from industry.
In parallel, once in London, Frederic Leymarie continued to explore areas of research that combine creative artistic activities, vision, and perceptual understanding with computers. His recent collaborations with artists include: William Latham, Patrick Tresset (creator of Paul the Robot), Rui F. Antunes, Carol MacGillivray, Daniel Berio, Memo Akten, Terrance Broad.
Prof. Leymarie is also interested in exploring research and development in a more entrepreneurial context. In 2011, he co-founded London Geometry Ltd. with Prof. William Latham, which conducts projects focused on interactive visualization, games, science, and art, and in 2015, he co-founded DynAIkon Ltd. with Prof. Stefan Rueger, which currently focuses on biodiversity monitoring and machine learning.
Prior to London, he was: (1998-2004) in Providence (RI, USA) where he received his PhD in Engineering (on 3D shape understanding) from Brown University, (1994-1997) in Paris (France) as an R&D project manager in industry (on 3D Geographic Information Systems), and (prior to 1994) in Montreal, Canada where he completed a Master of Engineering in AI Systems at McGill University.
