Patchlab Digital Art Festival

🟡 Aftermovie Patchlab Festival 2025: MAY AI HELP YOU? nie tylko podsumuje 14. edycję, która konsekwentnie eksplorowała nowe wymiary sztuki i technologii w świecie zdominowanym przez AI - ale jest także zapisem konkretnych odpowiedzi naszych gości na tytułowe pytanie: @irini_mirena Papdimitriou i Chris Wright z @futureverything , Guillermo Aracil z @nowarlab , @ali_phi oraz @xwolgan JacekNagłowski. A w tym roku czeka nas jubileuszowa 15. edycja 🤩 Jeśli tworzysz w obszarze sztuki cyfrowej i chcesz zaproponować wyjątkowy projekt — skorzystaj z prostej, dostępnej ścieżki zgłoszeń. Formularz znajdziesz na stronie: patchlab.pl. #digitalart #aitools #arttech #krakow #patchlabfestival

⚫️ @patchlabfestival is not only about events and digital art. It is also, or perhaps above all - people. As we close 2025 and open a new year, we would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts everyone who stands with us: co-creators and collaborators, artists, partners, volunteers, and friends of the festival. It is thanks to you that Patchlab can become a reality year after year. ________________________________ 🖤Special thanks go to the Patchlab Team:

Elwira Wojtunik, Popesz Csaba Láng, Karolina Paluch, Marcin Maciejewski, Faustyna Ostróżka, Urszula Obstarczyk, Agata Łukaszewska, Laura Gomez, Pola Madej, Bartosz Soból, Piotr Jawor, Dawid Ścigalski, Stan Barański, HiStories, Jacek Krok ________________________________ To you, Dear Viewers and Guests, we wish all the best in 2026!

See you during ⚫️the 15th edition of Patchlab Festival

It’s been an honour to represent Poland’s digital art scene and @patchlabfestival at #numixlab25 Budapest-Veszprem-Vienna-Linz edition. A unique week full of inspiration and meaningful exchanges with incredible professionals from the ArtTech, audiovisual and immersive creative technology sectors. I’m coming back to Krakow with renewed energy, exciting new ideas and fresh connections – and we’re already exploring collaborations to bring new initiatives to life in the very near future. Thank you @xnquebec and CORRESPONDANCES DIGITALES for the invitation and for having me in the panel. Looking forward to next editions & our further collaboration!

This year @hevrekazimierz +1 once again served as the @patchlabfestival Club. This is where, since 2017, the panoramic projection system designed by us has been in use — loved by VJs and visual artists. At the festival opening, 🟡Javier Muñoz @monchi.master performed a VR DJ set. Over the weekend, 🟡DJ @bad.alian [ @sektaselekta ] and 🟡DJ @yulz.dj [Klub CEL, Katowice] played, accompanied by visuals from 🟡VJ Ludwik Kamiński @ludwik_av 🟡The 14th edition of Patchlab concluded with an improv performance for two actors and AI, featuring Marta Waldera, Marcin Kalisz @kalisz_z_wroclawia and… Chat GPT. Especially for our festival, HEVRE prepared a special 🍹Prompt cocktail. Thank you! --- photo: @dawidscigalski / @stanbaranski

This edition of the 🟡 @patchlabfestival presented the latest trends in digital animation through a screening of short films awarded at the @arselectronica Animation Festival in Linz. Interestingly, this year as many as one third of the nearly 900 submissions were created using AI — a record number so far. The Patchlab program featured two sections: 🟡 Best of Prix Ars Electronica 2024, New Animation Art — seven outstanding animations awarded Golden Nicas, an Award of Distinction, and Honorary Mentions. These works use AI tools (including Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, Runway) both creatively and critically, addressing themes such as the climate crisis, data surveillance, hidden labor behind training models, the erosion of image credibility, and the commodification of education. Additional films broaden the perspective with narratives about quantum reality as well as stories of relationships and transformation. 🟡 Science and Data Visualizations — animations that turn complex scientific concepts into clear, engaging visual narratives. From the dynamics of stars orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, to the process of DNA replication, to visualizations of climate change — these works reveal phenomena that unfold too quickly or too slowly to be perceived directly, blending factual knowledge with emotional storytelling. It was a comprehensive showcase of contemporary animation, illustrating how technology, art, and science come together to shape new ways of telling stories about the world. --- fot. @stanbaranski / @dawidscigalski

🟡Artists' Talks at @patchlabfestival once again created a space for inspiring conversations between artists, researchers, and the public. 🟡At the first meeting, the international research consortium ACCESS: AI & DL presented a project combining deep learning, artificial intelligence, and advanced VR, redefining remote participation in performances. Guests could try the demo and talk to the creators. 🟡The cycle was concluded with a conversation with Jacek Nagłowski @xwolgan , director and AI researcher, creator of the VR experience “VR Conversations” and initiator of the AI Social Lab. During the talk, he shared reflections on the creative potential of open AI models and their role in addressing social challenges. Jacek Nagłowski was interviewed by Marcin Maciejewski, Future(s) Strategist, leading research and development projects on future products and services, combining design research, trend analysis, and kinesthetic learning with extensive experience in foresight, academia, and the creative sector. photo: @dawidscigalski

During the second AVnight at this year's 🟡 @patchlabfestival we experienced an audiovisual speculative performance titled 🟡'Sound Gardens' created by the sound-art duo @blooming.object - Maciej Waleszczyk and Jan Skorupa. In this work, using custom programmed instruments based on generative algorithms and machine-learning tools, the artists treat sound as a living substance, produced by generative instruments within an organic, immersive ecosystem. The form breaks free from strict composition, allowing for chance and unpredictability; the creator is no longer at the center but becomes a companion to the process. It is a dialogue between the artists and technology, from which an ever-evolving audiovisual landscape emerges. --- photo: @stanbaranski

At @apteka.designu during the 14th edition of the 🟡 @patchlabfestival , two exhibitions by @tactical_tech were presented — a think tank recognized by @unesco as one of the most important civil society initiatives working in the field of AI ethics. 🟡'AI & Us' is a modular exhibition explaining the basic mechanisms of artificial intelligence, its impact on everyday life, society, and the environment, while also providing practical tools for the conscious use of new technologies. Meanwhile, the educational exhibition 🟡'Everywhere, All the Time', prepared in collaboration with over 300 teenagers and 100 teachers from around the world, supports young people in an interactive and accessible way in critically thinking about the role of technology and building online well-being. Both exhibitions were accompanied by the interactive 🟡Live Lab, where participants could learn, through hands-on interactive games, about the mechanisms through which AI shapes everyday life and social relationships.

Javier & Luis Muñoz @monchi.master @luis.sierra.music and Enrique Moya Rosa @enrikismo during the 14th edition of @patchlabfestival presented 🟡 @alhajaxr - an immersive VR audiovisual performance inspired by the folklore of the Spanish regions of La Mancha and Andalusia. 🟡The artist trio entered a virtual universe to sculpt a constantly evolving live performance. They combined virtual instruments, samples of folk songs, drum machines and synthesizers with imagery created in real time by artificial intelligence, which became a digital brush guided by human imagination. On this journey through time, music was a language without borders, and tradition evolved into the future. ⮕ The project was presented in collaboration with the @instytutcervantesakrakow photo: @dawidscigalski

During one of the AVnights at this year’s 🟡 @patchlabfestival , we experienced a hypnotic performance by @andreaslutzz - an artist exploring the boundaries of communication between humans and machines. The creator presented the audiovisual performance 🟡‘Abstract Language Model’, in which he trained an artificial neural network on complete sets of characters represented in the Unicode standard. The resulting complex data models contained a translation of all available human sign systems into equally representable, machine-generated states. Through the extraction and interpolation of these artificially generated semiotic systems, a purely machine-based sketch of a universal trans-human/trans-machine language emerged. ⮕ The ‘Abstract Language Model’ project was distinguished with the prestigious Honorary Mention of the @arselectronica Prix 2025. ⮕ The project was presented in collaboration with @goetheinstitut_krakau photo: @dawidscigalski

The 14th edition of the 🟡 @patchlabfestival concluded with experimental performances at @cricoteka that explored the theme of so-called wasted data - unnecessary, useless data, including that which is left behind after death. In 🟡'Hallucinations', Ursula Winterauer @gischt____ and Claudia Larcher @claudia_larcher took as their starting point the phenomenon of artificial intelligence hallucinations, when algorithms, beyond control, misinterpret data or generate fiction. In their project, relics of analog media were brought to life as audio-visual archives and overwritten by AI, gaining an entirely new context. ⮕The project was presented under the patronage of the @afkwaw photo: @dawidscigalski

During AVnight at @hevrekazimierz the Italian collective @imaginariumcreativestudio presented the immersive performance 🟡'Ora. The Limits of Planet' in a 360° projection format, combining original music and soundscapes of the Earth and the Cosmos with hand-drawn and digital animation. Inspired by the concept of 'planetary boundaries', the performance addressed themes of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the relationship between humans, Nature, and Space. In the sonic layer, recordings from ESA, ASI, EGO, and INGV were used, among others. 🟡The image and sound created a meditative yet unsettling spectacle that encouraged reflection on the consequences of human actions. --- ⮕The project was presented in collaboration with the @iic_cracovia --- photo @dawidscigalski