Lawrence Lek’s first feature-length film, AIDOL 爱道, is a CGI fantasy that forms the sequel to his acclaimed film Geomancer (2017). Deploying 3D rendering and video game software, AIDOL 爱道 is a technically dazzling and thematically layered experience. It tells the story of Diva—a fading superstar preparing for a comeback performance at the 2065 “eSports Olympics”—and Geo, an AI with artistic yearnings. Set in a smoke-and-mirrors realm of fantastical architecture, sentient drones, and snow-deluged jungles, AIDOL 爱道 revolves around the long and complex struggle between humanity and artificial intelligence. Fame—in all its allure and emptiness—is set against the bigger contradictions of a post-AI world, where originality is sometimes no more than an algorithmic trick and machines have the capacity to love and suffer. Contemporary anxieties and fixations—the rise of AI, the formulaic dictates of celebrity, the hegemony of technological giants—are refracted through a quixotic prism. AIDOL 爱道 is accompanied by a score composed and orchestrated by the artist.

The screening is part of the double bill Future Worlds of Entanglement. The event is included in E2E and Connect Passes. Other pass holders and visitors have the possibility to purchase a ticket; for pass holders of the Symposium Pass the ticket price is reduced. 

Presented with SHAPE. The SHAPE platform is co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union.