The films in this programme explore how technologies mediate non-verbal methods of communicating in order to commodify the human or nonhuman body. In Bare Life, Hana Yoo explores perceptions of freedom and death through the interweaving narratives of a pest controller and an AI model that is being trained to measure the pain threshold of laboratory mice. Nina Davies’ Never Let Them Know Your Next Move extrapolates current concerns about the gig economy and surveillance capitalism into a possible future system of work and governance that commodifies human movement and ultimately supersedes human language. Completing the programme, 업체eobchae’s Rola Rolls imagines a future where the climate crisis has accelerated and carbon deposits are depleted. Responding to the crisis, scientists develop a wheel-like appendage for the human body, isolating its function solely as a power generating device.

All the films in this programme question how - if we can’t understand what movements are, how can computers?

With support from the Embassy of Canada in Berlin and the Arts Council Korea ARKO.