Competition 5

STAMPFER DREAMS is a homage to the scientist Simon von Stampfer, who presented his invention of the Stroboscopic Discs in Vienna in 1833. These discs show all kinds of animated loops from abstract to figurative and from (literally) experimental to documentary, and in this way forsee the variety of genres in animated film. All characters and animated sequences in STAMPFER DREAMS are taken from / based on these “optical magic discs”.
The film starts in the alpine region of Simon’s childhood and vaguely follows his biography. Three ‚dreams‘ depict his imagination of the further evolution mankind might make, with a watermill as the starting point for an industrial revolution that will ultimately lead to our present.

In “The Simultaneity of Breathing”, Mersolis Schöne envisions experimental film production as a place of encounter where drawings and press photos by Austrian artist Lisa Est and Thomas Ballhausen’s poetry come together in a shared philosophical experiment. Through the voices of Apollina Smaragd (German) and James Delaney (English), lines such as “words / that always keep us alive” lead us to the threshold of a semantic breath. The film itself takes shape as a living, poetic being that explores those fleeting moments when reality and possibility meet in the blur between breaths.

Brosch AI – Distorted Dreams is an experimental animated short film that explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, art, and archival material. It delves into the enigmatic world of the Upper Austrian artist Klemens Brosch (1894–1926), whose hauntingly melancholic and darkly romantic visual universe is now being reimagined through AI-driven animation.

Brosch, often described as a visionary talent plagued by inner demons, led a life marked by severe mental illness, morphine addiction, and ultimately suicide. His work, which oscillates between dreamlike beauty and eerie introspection, has been called a „psychogram of self-destruction“ (Nowak-Thaller, 2016). Brosch AI – Distorted Dreams seeks to expand on his artistic legacy by utilizing AI technologies to reconstruct, animate, and reinterpret his drawings.

By integrating images from Brosch’s archive and written sources about the artist into an AI workflow, this project experiments with the potential of AI-generated animation to deepen our understanding of his unique visual world. AI tools such as LumaLabs DreamMachine, Haiper, and Kling.ai are employed to transform Brosch’s original works into animated paintings while preserving his distinctive aesthetic.

The film unfolds as a balancing act between artistic fidelity and the unpredictable nature of AI-driven creativity. It highlights the tensions between human intention and algorithmic interpretation, revealing both the limitations and the unforeseen inspirations that arise from this collaboration. The AI’s output fluctuates between uncanny accuracy and unexpected distortions—an apt reflection of Brosch’s own tormented artistic vision.

Ultimately, Brosch AI – Distorted Dreams is more than just an animated film; it is an exploration of how artificial intelligence can be used as a tool to reinterpret and extend artistic heritage. By questioning the role of AI in art production and historical representation, the project opens up new perspectives on the ways we engage with the past through technology.