ExFest 2023 Full Program
Watch the Full ExFest 2023 Program Here!
ExTV Presents: ExFest 2023 – our longest running festival for student video work at SAIC! And congratulations to our winners:
1st Place: Zechen Li – “Chroma Wheel”
2nd Place: Yutong Ao – “The Feast of Weasels”
3rd Place: Daniel Tseng – “appropriation”
Program Order:
“appropriation” – Daniel Tseng (01:04)
appropriating montage and its audio to creating a moment of suspense of disbelieve.
“New Age: The “They” Emergence” – Janice Cho, Yeju Kang (06:25)
“New Age: The They Emergence” consists of three chapters: “Chapter 1: 22th Century: A Brief History of Humankind”, “Chapter 2: The Metamorphosis”, and “Chapter 3: Adaptability”. Through each chapter, this video reveals new perspectives by connecting humans and today’s digital media with an emphasis on our consumption of ‘content.’ It concludes with an exploration of how this behavior could potentially lead to a digital de-evolution, fundamentally changing our organic nature.
“The Table” – Bella Miller (02:04)
The Table is an animation that explores life changes surrounding and involving the staple piece of the kitchen table. Inspired by Carrie Mae Weems’ ‘Kitchen Table Series’.
“Chasing” – Linds Scott (03:24)
I am a plant with a single sprout My leaves number many and reach toward the light And every spring a bulb will form At the end of my sprout Threatening to burst with life at any moment A new color for every fresh start New petals A fresh blossom Stretching its neck toward the sun Spreading its petals Reaching Thirsting To bloom as large and bright as can be Before the cold comes around and it falls off its joint To be replaced by a new bud next spring.
“ai evolution of cyber worship reality” – Bella Podowski (10:23)
This project is the second iteration of an appropriation video I completed in 2021 titled cyber worship reality. This new video builds off of something already personal-regarding my relationship to addiction, media, people, myself//my body, conversation//dialogue, family, & the internet. The utilization of ai, along with my choice of prompts, augments the narrative of the project and creates a modified version, abstractly illustrating a more elucidative simulacrum of who I am and what I have been through.
“The Feast of Weasels” – Yutong Ao (01:06)
In the hidden forest, the weasels began their feast. This is a destructive animation, the materials are charcoal and pastels.
“Chroma Wheel” – Zechen Li (07:44)
Chroma Wheel is a 7 mins film made with digitally hand-drawn animation and composited in after effects. The film explores my personal experience of making art and the various emotions that come with it. The protagonist, P, is trapped in a “Mind Desert”, a bizarre world of extending dunes and thick smoke, a place typical of when one is facing a creative block. Monister and Compass Bird are the two creatures that live in this world, representing P’s memory. The environment shifts as P starts to get footing on his musical creation. The creation process, I am visualizing with changing colors and motions. The colors intensify as P begins to see the work coming together. Meanwhile, the protagonist experiences emotions that evolve from confusion to excitement, anxiety to harmony. By using the language of animation and sound, I want to capture the highs and lows of creating an art work, and the feeling of letting go of it at the end. My intention in making this film is to trace the various actions I made and the feelings I had during my creative process. I hope my audience can relate to this journey and the emotions toward the finished work.
“College Vampire” – Kate Hassett, Lola Barbieri (15:33)
After years of living in Transylvania, this college vampire is starting her freshman year of college in Chicago. This mockumentary-based film follows our vampire friend to show the life of a college student in Chicago. Our student uses the time with the crew to finally get her first kiss as well as show the average Chicago student life. Each scene was given a basic plot, but the dialogue was completely improvised, which then allowed us to enhance our story and its plot comedically.
“Born” – Hoang Nguyen (02:26)
The disconnection between human being and natural landscape. Then it push them toward the deconstruct resulted in abstract feeling.