68th BFI London Film Festival: expanded programme of Immersive Art, Extended Reality and Gaming Works

The 68th BFI London Film Festival (9 – 20 October) has announced the line-up for LFF Expanded, the Festival’s programme of Immersive Art and Extended Reality works, running from 11 – 27 October 2024. The BFI London Film Festival celebrates the moving image in all its forms, from shorts and features to television, immersive and, for the very first time, video games. LFF Expanded invites audiences to explore and experience powerful new ways of telling stories on screen.

Featuring leading British and international filmmakers, artists, and creative teams, including Liam Young, Adrien M & Claire B, Anagram, Darkfield, Memo Akten & Katie Peyton Hofstadter and Hatsumi, this year’s programme offers audiences a range of approaches to storytelling at the cutting edge of screen technology.

• Impulse: Playing With Reality is a groundbreaking installation from UK studio Anagram, narrated by Tilda Swinton and informed by 100+ hours of interviews. Combining Mixed Reality and engaging gameplay, the work playfully explores Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, providing a deeper insight into ADHD while raising important questions about how we perceive and engage with neurodiversity (venue: Bargehouse).

• Arcade is a major immersive audio installation from Darkfield, set inside a shipping container and presented in near total darkness. Combining spatial sound and sensory effects with the nostalgic aesthetic of 1980s video games, it narrative explores the evolving relationship between players and avatars, as audiences set out on an interactive quest that asks deep questions about free will and consciousness (venue: BFI Southbank).

• Presented in partnership with Outernet London – the largest digital exhibition space in Europe, with floor to ceiling, 360-degree screens across its four-storey building – The Great Endeavour by Liam Young is an inspiring cinematic experience that envisions a future where we achieve planetary transformation through coming together to remove carbon from the atmosphere (venue: Outernet London).
• Last Minute is a captivating projection mapping installation from artists Adrien M and Claire B. Inspired by Claire B’s personal experiences of grief and pregnancy, Last Minute captures the concept of the minute just before death and just before birth, inviting audiences on a collective immersive journey through a hypnotising universe of music, light and interactive projections (venue: Bargehouse).
• Superradiance. Embodying Earth by Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter, presented in partnership with Digital Body Festival London, is a multiscreen video and sound installation that combines AI with dance to provoke and nurture strong connections to the global ecosystems of which we are a part (venue: BFI IMAX).

In addition to the major installations, LFF Expanded will also present an exciting programme of free activity taking place at Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf, in the heart of London’s South Bank. For the very first time at the BFI London Film Festival, video games will be showcased via an interactive Games Lounge, featuring five fun and creative projects for audiences to play for free:

• A Highland Song – follow the journey of protagonist Moira McKinnon, as she navigates the mysteries of the Scottish Highlands.

• Playing Kafka – the definitive Franz Kafka videogame, based on his life and work.

• Paper Trail – join Paige, a budding academic, as she untangles the puzzle of a foldable, paper world.

• Dome King Cabbage – an award-winning psychedelic visual novel about a cloud-person named Mush making their way to interview for the role of ‘Dome King’.
• Closer the Distance – a deeply moving slice-of-life simulation in which players help a community to overcome collective grief in the face of a tragedy.

There will also be a programme of four free XR works at Bargehouse that explore how Virtual and Mixed Reality can offer new perspectives on physical and mental health:

• Based on artist Tara Baoth Mooney’s own experience of cancer treatment, Mammary Mountain invites audience members to take on the role of breast cancer patients.

• Emperor by Marion Burger tells a poetic, interactive story of a father diagnosed with aphasia, bringing to life he and his daughter’s struggle to communicate.

• Sitting at the nexus of technology and healthcare, Soul Paint by Hatsumi is an immersive journey, narrated by actor Rosario Dawson, in which audiences can explore and express their emotions and bodily sensations through body mapping, 3D drawing and movement.
• Stim Cinema is a work co-created by The Neurocultures Collective and artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood, which investigates the joy of repetitive stimming behaviours that are a common trait of the autistic experience, connecting delight in repetition to the birth of cinema.

The LFF Expanded programme is complemented by events, including an engaging conversation on ADHD and gaming at Science Gallery from the team behind Impulse: Playing with Reality. Across the programme, curated by the BFI London Film Festival’s XR and Immersive Programme Lead, Ulrich Schrauth, audiences are invited to let their curiosity reign supreme and go beyond the limits of their imagination.

Ulrich Schrauth, BFI London Film Festival’s XR and Immersive Programme Lead, said: “This year’s LFF Expanded programme harnesses the most innovative and imaginative digital technologies, from Projection Mapping and Mixed Reality to Immersive Audio and AI and, for the first time, I’m excited that the programme will present Games. The works shine a spotlight on the intersection between healthcare and technology, telling vivid personal stories, celebrating the power of play and platforming breathtaking immersive experiences at the very forefront of screen technology.”

Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, added:“LFF Expanded has become integral to the LFF experience and I invite audiences to go to the limits of their imagination and beyond with the programme this year.”

The BFI London Film Festival is the UK’s foremost celebration of screen culture that invites audiences to engage with the finest filmmaking talents from our shores and around the world. Each year, the Festival presents a compelling programme of more than 200 features, shorts, Series and XR works to audiences at venues across London, while a selection of the films also screen at partner cinemas across the UK.

LFF EXPANDED 2024 IMMERSIVE ART AND XR PROGRAMME:

IMMERSIVE INSTALLATIONS

LAST MINUTE – UK PREMIERE

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse | 30min | Artist/Studio: Adrien Mondot & Claire Bardainne | Ticketed

One moment in time, stretched to infinity: this poetic and captivatingly beautiful installation sets out to transform our perception of time and space.

What if this was the first minute of your life? What if it was the last? French artists Claire Bardainne and Adrien Mondot have created a space bathed in images and sound, capturing a singular moment at the threshold between death and life. Embark on a collective immersive journey through a hypnotising universe of music, light and interactive projections.

IMPULSE: PLAYING WITH REALITY – UK PREMIERE

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse | 40min | Artist/Studio: Anagram | Ticketed

What happens in your mind when you act on impulse? This project playfully explores what it means to live with ADHD.

This brilliantly inventive take on living with ADHD employs Mixed Reality to capture the visual cacophony of our thoughts and what it means to be neurodivergent. Through captivating gameplay, follow four outsiders whose rollercoaster of emotions leads them to a life on the edge. As the characters explore their thought patterns, you can uncover your own to reach a state of empathy and understanding.

ARCADE

12 – 27 Oct | BFI Southbank (outside Theatre Avenue entrance) | 30min | Artist/Studio: DARKFIELD | Ticketed

Can a gaming avatar be conscious of its own actions? Find out in DARKFIELD’s latest adventure – a fully interactive choose-your-own-path experience with immersive sound.

Enter ARCADE‘s world, where your decisions ultimately shape your journey. You can choose a side in a war-torn world, seek peace or even join a cult. Through spatial sound and sensory effects, you and your fellow audience members set out on a quest through an alternate reality, in which you begin to question your perception of free will and consciousness.

THE GREAT ENDEAVOUR – INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE

11 – 27 Oct | Outernet (Free) | 10min | Artist/Studio: Liam Young | Free

Gigantic waves, raging storms and the largest construction project in Human history: this impressive cinematic experience envisions a future world where we achieve planetary transformation.

To reach current climate targets, we must remove a gigatonne-scale of existing carbon from the atmosphere. Artist and filmmaker Liam Young approaches this monumental challenge with radical optimism. The Great Endeavour is a collaboration with scientists and technologists – set to a score by world-renowned musician Lyra Pramuk – that envisions a future world where we face up to our generation’s greatest challenge.

SUPERRADIANCE. EMBODYING EARTH – EUROPEAN PREMIERE

11 – 27 Oct | BFI IMAX Foyer (Free) | 20min | Artist/Studio: Memo Akten & Katie Peyton Hodstadter | Free

Exploring the interplay of AI and dance, this riveting virtual simulation merges ethereal dancers with transhuman species, bringing them to life in an immersive ritual space.

This captivating multiscreen video and sound installation aims to deepen our connection to global ecosystems. Fusing artificial intelligence, dance and neuroscience, this otherworldly experience extends the viewer’s bodily perception, beyond the skin and into the environment. Located inside the foyer of the BFI IMAX, it invites cinemagoers and public audiences alike to engage with its mesmerising visuals and soundscape.

GAMES LOUNGE

The Games Lounge is free and takes place at Bargehouse/OXO Tower. It showcases five creative projects that exist at the intersection of game culture and interactive arts, playfully exploring alternative storytelling methods and diverse approaches to audience interaction and game design.

A HIGHLAND SONG

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| Single-Player | Lead artist(s): Inkle | Free

An adventure through the Scottish Highlands, with open platforming and dynamic storytelling, interactive maps and an exhilarating musical score.

Set in the Scottish Highlands, this adventurous single-player game takes you on a breathtaking journey over hills and through valleys with young Moira McKinnon, on her way to visit her Uncle Hamish at his coastal lighthouse. Explore a landscape brimming with secrets and stories, weaving history, mythology and family mysteries. What truths will you uncover?

CLOSER THE DISTANCE – WORLD PREMIERE

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| Single-Player | Lead artist(s): Osmotic Studios | Free

What happens to a local community after a tragedy hits its idyllic setting? Explore the power of human connections in this inventive and powerful simulation game.

Closer the Distance is a moving slice-of-life sim about family and friendship in the face of tragedy. You play as Angela, a young girl from Yesterby who, after a fatal car accident, watches over her loved ones as they grieve. With her ethereal abilities, Angela’s choices will shape the fate of Yesterby.

DOME KING CABBAGE – WORLD PREMIERE

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| Single-Player | Lead artist(s): Joe Buchholz | Free

A mind-expanding trip through space and time, combining extraordinary stop-motion animation with witty and inventive gameplay.

This captivating visual novel follows Mush, a gloomy character heading nervously to a job interview. You are taken on an extraordinary adventure as Mush perceives the world through the prism of a monster-collecting role-playing game. This latest project comes from the renowned game developer Joe Buchholz, aka Cobbysoft Co.

PAPER TRAIL

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| Single-Player | Lead artist(s): Newfangled Games | Free

Set in a foldable paper world, this top-down puzzle-adventure about leaving home invites you to uncover hidden routes and secret pathways.

Meet Paige, an 18-year-old who lives with her parents by the seaside. Her hobbies include journaling, origami, and — bending the space-time continuum. You get to join her as she leaves home for the first time to pursue her studies. Together, you’ll learn to fold the world in creative ways, solve puzzles, explore new areas and uncover long-lost secrets.

PLAYING KAFKA

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| Single-Player | Lead artist(s): Charles Games | Free

Explore one of the most famous novels of all time, Franz Kafka’s The Trial, as a gaming experience that places you at the heart of its story.

There are things that often fail on nothing but themselves. Is there even a way out? Playing Kafka is a narrative adventure full of impenetrable schemes, insidious plot twists and conversations that slip out of hand. Based on Kafka’s life and work, and developed with Kafka experts, this inventive game can take you to another dimension – almost literally!

PLAYING WITH REALITY

Complementing the presentation of Anagram’s Impulse: Playing With Reality, this programme looks at neurodivergence as well as mental and physical health through a selection of XR experiences and installations, offering new perspectives on a pressing issue, and aimed at driving societal change

EMPEROR

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| 40min | Lead artist(s): Marion Buger, Ilan J. Cohen | Free

An interactive narrative delving into the world of a father suffering from Aphasia and as his daughter grapples with his lost ability to find words.

Emperor tells the poetic story of a man who has lost his ability to speak, and his daughter’s quest to communicate with him. As she unravels his connection to words and memories, we join her on a surreal journey through aphasia, exploring themes of loss, age and enduring emotional bonds, all presented in black and white, and a traditional animation style.

MAMMARY MOUNTAIN

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| 23min | Lead artist(s): Tara Baoth Mooney, Camille Baker, Maf’j Alvarez | Free

An intimate VR experience that explores ‘dis-ease’ within the body, through the lived experience of patients with breast cancer.

Meticulously crafted and developed in close collaboration with a team of scientists and researchers, this interactive experience tells the stories of patients’ healthcare struggles, with focus on breast cancer treatment. Audiences are led through a visual and sonic world that interweaves excerpts from survivors’ stories. It aims to invoke a more nuanced and holistic understanding of this sensitive topic.

SOUL PAINT – UK PREMIERE

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| 27min | Lead artist(s): Sarah Ticho, Niki Smit | Free

Unfolding at the nexus of immersive technology, creative storytelling and wellbeing, Soul Paint delves into the richness of the embodied human experience.

Explore and express your emotions and bodily sensations through body mapping, 3D drawing and movement. Using cutting-edge interactive technology, this experience, narrated by Rosario Dawson, pushes boundaries and fosters new forms of embodied insight. It allows us to reflect on the diversity of human experience, both on individual and universal levels.

STIM CINEMA

12 – 27 Oct | Bargehouse| Lead artist(s): The Neurocultures Collective and Steven Eastwood | Free

This installation investigates the connections between repetitive stimming behaviours that are common in autism, the earliest forms of moving images and contemporary digital art.

Stim Cinema explores repetitive actions and autistic experiences by tracing the origins of cinema and its language. Coalescing neurodivergent perspectives, it offers new representations of autism, and it pioneers inclusive practices in moving image art. Co-created by The Neurocultures Collective and artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood, this project invites viewers to experience the joy in stimming and shared neurodiversity.

EVENTS

THE ATTENTION BATTLE: AN EVENING WITH THE CREATORS BEHIND IMPULSE: PLAYING WITH REALITY

7pm | 15 Oct | Science Gallery | Free

Is ADHD everywhere you look? Diagnoses are up 20x in the last two decades. Many for adults whose symptoms were missed as children. Perhaps you suspect you might be one of them, and the algorithm has finally found you. Or is the tendency to connect what’s on your mind to everything you see just another symptom? IMPULSE is an immersive story that explores how your thought patterns shape your life, and combines the touching accounts of four people living with intense emotions with playful mixed reality animations that connect their experiences to yours.

During this curated evening, the directors of the project delve into the complex experience of trying to pin down this supposed deficit of attention, drawing from over 100 hours of interview material with individuals with ADHD and experts in the field. Participants include Edmund Sonaga Burke, Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience at KCL, Vivienne Isebor from ADHD Babes, and characters featured in the experience.