IC-98 have accomplished a masterpiece of digital animation and is to me on of the best uber-immersive pieces of digital art I came across. In Abendland I nearly achieved a sort of trance. The extremely slow pace and transformation technique of the film itself played a major role, but I think that the curation (specially of Abendland) had a decisive impact on the effect of the piece: two very large galleries, displaying each one piece, both really dark (Abendland's was so pitch dark, empty and large that I had to turn on my mobile phone torch to approach the projection) equipped with a powerful sound system that allowed for vibrations to take over the senses, delivered with effective simplicity. The exhibition was appropriately titled "Meditations on Anthropocene": the dystopian character of a world barren of humans lent itself easily to a feeling of profound loss and therefore of meditation. In Nekropolis the sight of lifeforms abandoning the Earth to turn to dust, in the shape of a ominous dust cloud (which I came to find out after reading the PR were meant to symbolise human souls) has an apocalyptic feel to it. As the rocks blend into dust, the dust into clouds and the cloud gets "micro-itemised" into particles we see a "un-living" cycle that be-nerves the audience because of its white noise type of soundtrack, suggesting that all communication is now over. 

In Abendland, the technique employed is simple in concept but exquisite, and because of the extreme amount of layers in the movie, is clearly laborious. By lighting-up certain areas, the dark parts are easily drawn away from our eye as spectators, allowing for the landscape to slowly transform: we see the cycle of scale and realise that we are so un necessary for the planet's survival that extinction is unavoidable. James Lovelock supports the idea that because we have passed the tipping point, we can only rely on more technology to survive the environment's collapse, or expect certain extinction. Abendland blends the cycle of galaxies, underground and above ground life, with an enormously successful soundtrack that places us in a land that has life. However, the only sounds we hear are the sounds of life itself, no man-made noise, which for those people never abandoning the city might feel jarring. Meditations on Anthropocene has yet another dimension within the concept of Antropoecene: isn't it twisted that for us citizens of a city, we "need" an artist to bring a tree - a digital one - for us to look at and reflect upon the transformation of life? I believe that this is a great part of this particular work of art, as it meditates on our current societal model by exacerbating the gallery and the artist's function within it, to the point of leading the audience into "conceptual action".  

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