Onassis ONX at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam

Onassis ONX is participating in The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) for the second year in a row, as a core partner of the IDFA DocLab program (November 8-19, 2023). IDFA DocLab is the festival’s platform for interactive works that push the boundaries of nonfiction by blending art, reality, and technology. Through this ongoing collaboration, Onassis ONX and IDFA jointly support the participation of ONX projects in the DocLab program, this year entitled “Phenomenal Friction”.

As the foremost global festival for nonfiction storytelling, IDFA’s core values of “aesthetics, imagination, and inspiration” perfectly align with the studio’s mission to support innovation and champion creativity in XR. This year’s selected projects are "The Vivid Unknown" by John Fitzgerlad (World Premiere; IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction), and "Squeeker: The Mouse Coach" by Jiabao Li (International Premiere; IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling).

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"The Vivid Unknown" by John Fitzgerlad

"The Vivid Unknown" is a multi-channel interactive AI installation that reimagines filmmaker Godfrey Reggio’s legendary Quatsi trilogy. By training a generative AI model on Reggio’s archives, artist John Fitzgerland has created a collective viewing experience that explores the tensions between nature, humans, and technology.

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"Squeeker: The Mouse Coach" by Jiabao Li

Jiabao Li’s "Squeeker: The Mouse Coach" is a running program, a fitness app, and interactive installation. In the installation at IDFA, visitors are invited to run on a treadmill, the speed of which is matched to the speed of a mouse running on a wheel. Inspired by the artist’s pet mice and the widespread use of mice in labs, Squeeker playfully contemplates the relationships between animals, humans, and technology.

About Onassis ONX

Onassis ONX, created by Onassis Culture is an accelerator - a hybrid production and exhibition space, with a global community of members who create interactive and immersive XR and AI works. Located in the Olympic Tower in Midtown Manhattan, it was founded in 2020 in partnership between the Onassis Foundation and NEW INC. Onassis ONX now exists as a project of Onassis Culture, working in partnership with organizations in New York, including New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering, Games for Change, NEW INC, Rhizome, and MAX, as well as with global institutions such as IDFA, CPH:DOX, DiMoDA, and others. Offering development funding, state-of-the-art facilities, advocacy, and community for XR / AI artists working across disciplines, Onassis ONX has become an influential hub for a dynamic international artistic ecosystem.

Onassis ONX members can be found from New York to Athens, in Los Angeles, Paris, London, Istanbul, Lisbon and Louisville. They have developed and presented works around the world, including (in 2022/23) SXSW, The Venice International Film Festival, ArsElectronica, Plásmata exhibitions in Athens and Ioannina, Tribeca Festival, Mutek, and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Membership is open-ended and by application here. We are genre agnostic – but seek collaboration, intersection and interdisciplinarity - seeking out and enabling new possibilities of technology such as machine learning. Artists extending our reality, not simply in extended reality.

Onassis ONX acts as an active bridge between NYC and Athens in the area of digital and XR practice, working hand in glove with the different elements of Onassis Culture - Onassis AiR, Onassis Digital and Innovation, and Onassis Stegi. While our focus is on supporting the work of member artists from Athens, New York and beyond, we offer thought leadership through humanities events, exchange, artist development and education and the program calendar each year includes multiple showcase platforms in collaboration with our partners in New York, presentations of international and local work, talks and performances.