Panic

Ars Electronica

— screening

The 2025 Ars Electronica festival title PANIC: Yes/No found strong reflections also in several of the awarded works of the Prix Ars Electronica, which share underlying sentiments of doom and unease. This thematic resonance prompted the selection for the On Tour compilation PANIC – Prix Ars Electronica Selection.

The one-hour selection begins with three works awarded by the jury of the New Animation Art category at Prix Ars Electronica 2025 — one Award of Distinction and two Honorary Mentions.

Each tells a different story: the ritualistic unfolding of a mysterious dinner (Supper by Erick Oh); a day in the life of a motion-captured clone condemned to endless performance (The Cast of the Invisible by Lau Wai); and a requiem for a humanoid AI on the brink of being discarded as electronic waste (Aria by Yu Shien Yang and Jin Keon).

The selection continues with Corpus and the Wandering by Jo Roy. From there, the works expand into broader landscapes of collapse: Auntlantis by Niceaunties imagines a world overwhelmed by plastic waste, where environmental caretakers — the “aunties” — navigate hybrid oceans filled with sea creatures and jelly malls shaped by pollution and consumerism; Light Up New York But for a Moment by Zhuyuan Liu envisions The Times Square overtaken by a mutating media-monster as architecture dissolves into spectacle; Greetings from the New World by Matthieu Mantovani hovers distantly over derelict city structures and landscapes of excess; and Core Dump by Alona Rodeh surveys, from a drone’s perspective, a monumental e-waste dump in the desert.

The program culminates with Shockwave, which guides us on an infinite zoom-out through barren, AI-generated terrains in the cataclysmic aftermath of the atomic era.

Whether swarming over mountains of plastic, obsolete technologies, or industrial detritus, these works collectively confront us with the specter of environmental collapse and societal decay, forming a cohesive panorama in which the viewer instinctively yields to a mounting sense of PANIC.

Supper Erick Oh (US), 6’

The Cast of the Invisible Lau Wai (HK), 13’

Aria 夢姬 Yu Shien Yang & Jin Keon (TW/KR), 7’

Corpus and the Wandering Jo Roy (CA), 7’

Auntlantis Niceaunties (SG), 5’

Light Up New York For But A Moment Zhuyuan Liu (CN), 8’

Greetings from the New World Matthieu Mantovani (FR), 5’

CORE DUMP Alona Rodeh (IL/DE), 4’

Shockwave Mihai Grecu (RO), 5’

As part of the Ars Electronica Animation Festival On Tour, SIMULTAN presents PANIC – Prix Ars Electronica Selection, one of three compilations bringing recent works from the Prix Ars Electronica 2025 New Animation Art category to audiences beyond the festival.

The Ars Electronica Animation Festival On Tour showcases recent artistic trends in the field of digital animation. The selection, compiled of the submissions at Prix Ars Electronica 2025 in the category New Animation Art bears witness to recent transformations within the field of animation. The festival embraces artists who push the boundaries of the medium, offering innovative and experimental visual narratives. From the 1119 submissions, around 45 projects were selected and showcased at Ars Electronica Animation Festival in September 2025. Around a half of these have been now included in the On Tour program, and are available as three outstanding compilations: PANIC - PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA SELECTION, AUSTRIAN PANORAMA and YOUNG ANIMATIONS.

Photo cover by Erick Oh, courtesy of Ars Electronica