The Arcade workshop invites interested parties to understand new ways of experiencing and understanding the world of film and art via various activities.

Local and international filmmakers, producers and practised artists will share their research, experiences and views on the creative processes over the last decade.

The workshop invites to explore the archives of popular forms of visual communication and social critique on the internet (GIFs, memes) produced over the past decade, and reinterpretation of that material in new audio-visual works.

We are a part of the global internet community, marked by unstoppable hyper-(re)production of messages and fragments of our simulated media reality. Millions of people create, alter and share memes, this very simple digital form, a postmodern leech that feeds itself on extant media materials. Memes are perhaps the most available and most used collectively created content form that comments and parodies our everyday political, social and intimate reality. What can we learn from an archaeology of a decade?

By exploring the archive of the contemporary, the participants are invited to reflect on dominant ideologies that shape the world we live in, and consider the perspectives of the world of work, politics, aesthetics and intimacy.

Final works will form an immersive art installation that will be presented as part of the Démodé exhibition from 22 until 26 November. Participants will learn, use and improve their skill in digital techniques of making and manipulating video, and video mapping. The workshop is run by independent collective Spačke and multimedia artist Damjan Šporčić.

About the Workshop Mentors

Spačke are an independent initiative from Rijeka focused on shaking the conventional ways of viewing through art practices. They use workshops, exhibitions, discussions, interventions and various artistic activities to deal with marginal perspectives in art and culture.

Damjan Šporčić is a multimedia artist focused on visualisations and interactive video installations used as set design in music and other cultural and artistic events. He is experimenting with audiovisual technologies and electrotechnics. He has been doing workshops for VJ-ing and video mapping for kids and adults since 2014.

This workshop will allow participants a detailed insight into preparation of a film project – from development of the idea to finalising the film and distributing it. For those with projects currently in the making, Morana will set aside time to respond to specific questions regarding those projects.

Contemporary trends in documentary film distribution and the landscape of the film industry will be systematically presented. Special emphasis will be placed on new aspects of sustainable pre-production and production in audio-visual sector. The workshop is aimed at people of different experiences and profiles.

MORANA IKIĆ KOMLJENOVIĆ (Little Red Dot)

Producer, storyteller, and audio-visual expert with 20+ years of professional experience. Before starting her Little Red Dot company, she was head of production at Fade In, one of the leading documentary production companies in Croatia, and has worked internationally as co-producer, mentor and head of acquisitions at Taskovski Films in London. She frequently works with the Creative Europe Desk (MEDIA Office) and Euroimages and is a member of the EAVE expert network. Until recently,

she was the artistic advisor for documentary films (Croatian Audiovisual Centre) and head producer of the production department at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. She is an active member of the Managing Board of the Filmmakers Association of Croatia.

Passionate about sustainable film production and sustainable creative industry, Morana is a proud holder of ALBERT certificate and GREEN FILM certificate, and an advocate for sustainability, inclusivity and diversity.

Love is a concept we still don’t quite understand, which gives us room for research: how to comprehend our love towards ourselves or towards other(s). How to Love Many in Many Ways is an amalgam of games and exercises by the artists Gabriel Hensche and Engy Mohsen, starting point of which is the basic belief that the only way to approach love is through a collective.

They start from the wider notions of love and invite the viewers to perform various rituals with the possibility of different challenges for potential players: in relation to themselves and to other(s). Their wish is to build intimate relationships and to bring the emotional and bodily presence closer to the people, the way it was before our digital reality.

Media work by Petra Mrša stems from carefully crafted situations that consider the artistic context a place to spread and entice experience. Proposing thought and physical experiments to herself and/or her collaborators, her process opens up space for creation of new realities in which levelling, radical hospitality, and acceptance of the unknown form interpersonal dynamics. Gained and embodied knowledge celebrates vulnerability and imagination, while the documentation offers a basis to connect, not just with other humans, but also with non-human intelligences.

Petra’s interest for extending behaviour via self-imposed instructions led her to a three-year-long research of video games, which has further served as a place to open up discussions about the mechanisms of socialising in virtual reality.

As an artist and an educator with experience in social sciences and art studies, her multidisciplinary collaborative approach can be seen as a sustainable community research that joins the efforts to fix the damages done and transform the conditions of coexistence.

The experience that Petra will provide using numerous activities, accompanied by dialogue between the artist and the audience curated by Elena Apostolovski, new sensations bring forth questions of comfort offered by the digital (as opposed to physical) world, and the influence of digital technology on the subjectivity and the formation of identity.

Join us on Sunday for an inspiring talk and some warm food that heals even the worst hangover. We are bringing together the cream of European student filmmakers, winners of the decade of STIFF, to share with you their priceless experiences from the world of filmmaking.

We will hear their unbelievable tales from film studies, explore film development processes and highlight key challenges in film promotion and distribution.

We will learn first-hand about film schools, film funds, and workshops. Our guests will share precious advice, offer inspiration and practical knowledge to all those who dream of studying and making films.

After the talk we will move in front of the big screen and see the world premiere of a short film “Stuffed”, made at the Academy of Applied Arts in Rijeka. What started as an exercise in film acting soon exploded into a proper short film made by students of acting, set and costume design, new media and graphic design, with a little help from their professors, friends and film professionals. Get “Stuffed” with us to make it through the Sunday hangover.