‘IVF-X: Posthuman Parenting in Hybrid Reality’ nominated for innovation award Filmfest Bremen.
IVF-X is an awarded continuously mutating transmedia experience inviting *couples or singles to ‘breed’ digitally in a posthuman clinic using A.I. & Procedural Visual Simulation to grow cyborgs. *LGTBQ+ Proof. In the future, what will it mean for humans to breed if it is not so much a biological matter but an offspring of choice & technology? Speculating on the future of reproduction, philosopher & artist Victorine van Alphen developed a Hybrid Reality where you can breed & meet your own personalized cyborg baby: a creature existing on the verge of humanity & technology, digitally grown for you based on your choices. But…you will meet your cyborg only after an intimate retro-futuristic intake guided by performers. The intake merges immersive theatre, roleplay, experimental film, provocative interfaces and a ‘digital womb’.
IVF-X won the NFF Golden Calf (Oscar, NL): Jury “IVF-X does what good sci-fi can do. It becomes a mirror for our existing world […] addressing presuppositions and biases surrounding parenthood. The carefully considered scenography and the stages in which the story is constructed make even a skeptical audience into vulnerable participants. Story & technology are one. This is not a VR experience, but one that uses VR precisely, convincingly and harmoniously as just one of the media. IVF-X asks questions about what life is, about genetics, reproduction and about the individualistic society and culture we live in. In just 20 minutes, you are effectively immersed in very personal & profound layers of what parenting could be outside of patriarchal, commercialized & gendered norms. It offers a 3rd space beyond the ever-present binary thinking. The questions posed about post-human existence resonate”
IVF-X 2022: Innovation Award FilmfestBremen + MU Hybrid Art House + DutchDesignWeek, NL + Neuchatel NIFFF, CHE + Curta Brasília, BRA IVF-X 2020/21 SOLD OUT @NFF + EYE + ImagineFilmFestival@LAB111, Cineville+WeArePublic selection. Press about IVF-X went viral across the globe, see image* including NewYorkTimes, ForbesCentralAmerica, and BritishHerald.