T.F.I.D. (The Future is Dead) is a bold and innovative film and exhibition programme, so far presented in New York, Shanghai, Mexico City, Wrocław and Tokyo. While the concept is constant, each nomadic edition has differences, featuring new material and exploring new themes. It presents a range of highly advanced and visionary digital perspectives on the present and where it may lead. In the way that William Gibson hinted at, it tries in advance to make sense of the fiction that we will soon have become. The centrepiece of T.F.I.D. in Pula is the new film Evil Spirit. Although it was prepared in advance and doesn’t comment directly on current events, the chilling parallels of the film are clear. In it, a malevolent, all-seeing force degrades and corrupts America. It’s a nightmarish but visually fascinating journey into a heart of darkness. As Embryoroom, Edward Quist builds on his long filmmaking experience and incorporates influences from the dystopian American and British near-future dystopias of the 1970s and 1980s. The final element in his creative formula are the darkly atmospheric electronic soundtracks. The combination of all these elements is nightmarishly and hypnotically beautiful.
The exhibition also gives Croatian viewers a chance to explore several of Quist’s previous science fiction films, plus his collaborations with renowned electronic musicians including Pan Sonic, Ilpo Vaisanen, John Duncan and Paul Kendall. The collaborations showcase some of the most advanced electronic music and visuals from the 1990s to the present. Finally, the guest films explore vital contemporary techno-social issues. Alex Rutterford’s ghostly scenario tracks the waking spectre of AI, and how it may disrupt reality when it fully awakens. Embryoroom’s intensive remixing of the filmography of the notorious filmmaker Bruce LaBruce raises questions of artistic freedom and censorship, especially in the context of rising populism. Finally, Sz. Berlin ± Panic explores the legacy of 20th Century rationalist industrialism in the 21st Century. What meaning do these vast and toxic industrial ruins have today? Are they simply a warning of the failures of dead futures, or can they also be places in which we can reflect on and find temporary refuge from the present?
