Mindset

As in a modified computer game from bygone times, we glide through an animated labyrinth in a point-of-view perspective. We first go around corners again and again, past walls tiled with circular visual elements from various advertising brochures: lifestyle products, Sudoku, attractive surfaces depicting plants and flowers. They blink as we make our way through. This flow is accompanied by a collage of voice-overs offering motivational and inspirational slogans taken from social media channels: “No need for psychologists when you’re in a forest!” “Why not use the stones people put in your way to build something really great?” “Keep moving – or move over.” We pick up speed. The path goes up, down, back on a straightaway, with roller-coaster and haunted-house movements in dynamic alternation. This would-be stream of consciousness, translated into motion, is directed by those algorithms intended to deform our lives, while they pretend to promote our personal autonomy, whenever we come into contact with the world through the Internet. “High-performance relaxation” is demanded of us “in order to finally find our inner center”, according to the director Veronika Schubert. As it generates patterns and confusion simultaneously, the stream through the labyrinth accelerates while its visual components become smaller and smaller. Color moods change until the artifacts from artificially created personality profiles form mosaic-like images of people plastered across the corridors of this maze, conveying just as little substance as the disembodied voices. In the end, only white walls remain. (Melanie Letschnig)  

Translation: John Wojtowicz

Orig. Title
Mindset
Year
2021
Country
Austria
Duration
6 min
Category
Experimental, Animation
Orig. Language
German, English
Subtitles
English
Downloads
Mindset_01 (Image)
Mindset_02 (Image)
Mindset_03 (Image)
Credits
Director
Veronika Schubert
Editing
Veronika Schubert
Sound
Veronika Schubert
Animation
Veronika Schubert
Production
Veronika Schubert
Translation
Grynwasser Translations
Supported by
Land Vorarlberg, Stadt Wien
Mastering
Lorenz Pichler
Collage
Veronika Schubert
3D Maze Artist
Thomas Ilg
Title Design
Julian Hagen
Available Formats
DCP 2K flat (Distribution Copy)
Aspect Ratio
16:9
Sound Format
stereo
Frame Rate
25 fps
Color Format
colour
Festivals (Selection)
2021
San Vito al Tagliamento - Piccolo Festival
2022
Gilching - Fünf Seen Film Festival
Washington - EuroAsia Short Film Festival
Best Austrian Animation Film Festival (Audience Award)
Dresden - Filmfest
Regensburg - Kurzfilmwoche
Wien - Tricky Women / Tricky Realities - Int'l Animation Filmfestival
Leiden - International Short Film Festival
2023
Wien - CIVA Festival - Contemporary Immersive Visual Art