Camera Interactiva

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Three teams awarded seed money to develop stories on migration, citizenship and future societies

During the Camera Interactiva pitch event, which took place on December 10, 2015, three teams have bee awarded seed money to develop their creative stories further. The decision regarding the awards was made by a jury composed of professionals from the academia (Prof. Frank Kessler, Utrecht University), the arts (Marlou Rutten, Dutch Film Festival), NGO sector (Giovanni Campbell, Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie) and municipality (Hans Goedkoop, Utrecht Municipality). The projects developed by the short-listed teams will premiere on April 3, 2016, during the Cultural Sunday dedicated to the Utrecht University 76th Lustrum. Below we proudly present to you the three projects that received seed funding.

‘Reality 3.0’ by Omar Daou and Anna Ies Willems (awarded 2500 EUR seed money)

CameraReality 3.0 is an interactive web docu-series that aims to understand how technology has been influencing our everyday lives and explores how we can move towards a world where we use it consciously. As responsible citizens, are we aware of the ways in which we are using what technology has to offer? Chronicling the technological advancements from contemporary times through the present day—with many speculations about the future—3.0 is a journey that tries to understand the gradual evolution of technology’s relationship with nature: how did we get here and where are we going next? How can we use technology in ways that are responsible and conscientious towards our bodies, our minds, our social relationships, and the environment?

Zooming in on each particular user though an interactive interface—with personalized questions—and through understanding each user’s particular concerns and habits, Reality 3.0 will outline each customized version of the future for each unique audience member by the end of the documentary. What will your future hold?

Omar Daou is a Master Student at Utrecht University majoring in Gender Studies. His main goal is to bring together his research interests with aesthetics and artworks, creating art that can teach us something. Anna Ies Willems graduated as a journalist and specialised in documentary making, passionately curious about questions of future, such as: How is the society and world changing? What are problems and what can be solutions?

‘Paper Paradise’ by Eva van Roekel and Floor de Bie (awarded 1500 EUR seed money)

audiorouteImagine that you have to ‘prove’ your love in the form of documents, photos, tickets, and receipts. This is what our protagonists Dion (Dutch) and Jenny (Colombian) are doing to obtain a Dutch residence permit for Jenny. Since a few months they are following the Belgium route: they have decided to live 50 meters across the Belgian border to circumvent strict Dutch migration law. After an initial leap forward, they are now lost in incomprehensible Belgian and Dutch rules and European laws. Do they control the course of life or is it all an illusion?

Our project is an ‘immersive route’ consisting of two parts: an audio tour through Utrecht and the screening of a 30” documentary. Our immersive route wants to stimulate reflection about bizarre consequences of bureaucracy and the illusion of freedom in modern life.

The immersive audio tour leads the audience through several public spaces until they reach their final destination where the documentary will be shown. The documentary follows the Belgium route process of Dion and Jenny. The main themes are bureaucracy, alienation, and borders. With the audio tour, in couples the audience will find itself lost in a ‘bureaucratic maze’, just like the protagonists of the documentary.

Floor de Bie is a freelance filmmaker with a background in anthropology and journalism. Eva van Roekel is anthropologist and filmmaker with a background in Latin American Studies.

‘Limbo Citizen’ by Lillian dam Bracia and Pien den Hollander (awarded 1000 EUR seed money)

HoogWitOur project, Limbo Citizen, is an interactive installation located in the city center of Utrecht (possibly on a busy street, for example on Neude square or Stadhuisbrug). In the medium of abstract representations placed inside a maze, the installation aims to communicate the impact of legal borders in the lives of migrants who are in lack or in want of the legal right to stay in the EU. The installation will tell the story of four different migrants: a non-EU student seeking to stay in the EU after his period of study, an undocumented migrant, an asylum seeker and an economic migrant. Our aim is to offer citizens of the world a surprising possibility to critically reflect on his/her own privileges obtained from his/her citizen/national status. This will be in the form of what we would call a ´walkthrough documentary´ where, once inside, one will symbolically experience the stories of people who find themselves stuck in a legal limbo.

Lillian dam Bracia has just finished her liberal arts education in University College Utrecht where she completed tracks on anthropology and international relations. She is particularly interested in poststructural and postcolonial debates on issues of today’s modern society, such as  massive migration in relation to identity politics and power. Pien den Hollander studied Communication and Multimedia Design in Avans Hogeschool Breda. She focuses on the concept of medium and believes that medium is no less important than the story itself.

 

The two other competing stories – ‘Het Voorgesprek’ by Sander Biemans and Lowi Willems and ‘The Art of Conversation’ by Daan van Doremalen and Gisela Carrasco-Miro – received considerable praise from the jury and we hope that the authors will continue with developing them further.