Online Film Screening
Lawrence Lek’s first feature-length film, AIDOL 爱道, is a CGI fantasy that revolves around the long and complex struggle between humanity and Artificial Intelligence. Set against the backdrop of rising human-machine tensions, AIDOL follows Diva, a fading superstar who enlists the help of an AI songwriter for her comeback performance at the 2065 eSports Olympics. Fame – in all its allure and emptiness – is set against the bigger contradictions of a post-AI world, a world where originality is sometimes no more than an algorithmic trick and where machines have the capacity for love and suffering.
About Lawrence Lek:
Lawrence Lek (b. Frankfurt, 1982, lives and works in London) is a filmmaker, musician, and artist who unifies diverse practices—architecture, gaming, CGI, music and fiction— into a continuously expanding cinematic universe. His films include ‘Unreal Estate’ (18m, 2015, Dazed Emerging Artist Award), the video essay ‘Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD)’ (60m, 2016), the AI-coming-of-age story ‘Geomancer’ (48m, 2017), and ‘Nøtel’, a CGI simulation of a fully-automated luxury hotel (45m, 2019, Art Basel). Debut feature film ‘AIDOL’ produced by Sadie Coles HQ in London (83m, 2019, screened at Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020, and transmediale 2020 festival at Volksbühne, Berlin. Lek composes soundtracks and conducts live audio-visual mixes of his films, often incorporating live playthroughs of his open-world video games. Soundtrack releases include ‘Temple OST’ (The Vinyl Factory, 2020) and ‘AIDOL OST’ (Hyperdub, 2020). Performances include ‘Doom’ at Somerset House, London (curated by Christian Marclay) and ‘ProGeo’, ICA, London. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Ghostwriter’, CCA Prague (2019); ‘Farsight Freeport’, HeK, Basel (2019); ‘Nøtel’, UKR, Essen (2019); ‘AIDOL’, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019); and ‘2065’, K11, Hong Kong (2018). Lek is represented by Sadie Coles HQ.
CREDITS
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Lawrence Lek
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Sadie Coles
ASSISTANT PRODUCER Joni Zhu
COMPUTER GRAPHICS BY Clifford Sage
SCORE BY Lawrence Lek
EDITED BY Andre Corsini
SOUND DESIGN Seth Scott
CAST
DIVA Xiaoyi Nie
GEOMANCER Joni Zhu
THIEL Steve Goodman
GUO Sophie Guo
WU Xiaoran Wu
Online Film Screening
Lawrence Lek’s first feature-length film, AIDOL 爱道, is a CGI fantasy that revolves around the long and complex struggle between humanity and Artificial Intelligence. Set against the backdrop of rising human-machine tensions, AIDOL follows Diva, a fading superstar who enlists the help of an AI songwriter for her comeback performance at the 2065 eSports Olympics. Fame – in all its allure and emptiness – is set against the bigger contradictions of a post-AI world, a world where originality is sometimes no more than an algorithmic trick and where machines have the capacity for love and suffering.
About Lawrence Lek:
Lawrence Lek (b. Frankfurt, 1982, lives and works in London) is a filmmaker, musician, and artist who unifies diverse practices—architecture, gaming, CGI, music and fiction— into a continuously expanding cinematic universe. His films include ‘Unreal Estate’ (18m, 2015, Dazed Emerging Artist Award), the video essay ‘Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD)’ (60m, 2016), the AI-coming-of-age story ‘Geomancer’ (48m, 2017), and ‘Nøtel’, a CGI simulation of a fully-automated luxury hotel (45m, 2019, Art Basel). Debut feature film ‘AIDOL’ produced by Sadie Coles HQ in London (83m, 2019, screened at Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020, and transmediale 2020 festival at Volksbühne, Berlin. Lek composes soundtracks and conducts live audio-visual mixes of his films, often incorporating live playthroughs of his open-world video games. Soundtrack releases include ‘Temple OST’ (The Vinyl Factory, 2020) and ‘AIDOL OST’ (Hyperdub, 2020). Performances include ‘Doom’ at Somerset House, London (curated by Christian Marclay) and ‘ProGeo’, ICA, London. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Ghostwriter’, CCA Prague (2019); ‘Farsight Freeport’, HeK, Basel (2019); ‘Nøtel’, UKR, Essen (2019); ‘AIDOL’, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019); and ‘2065’, K11, Hong Kong (2018). Lek is represented by Sadie Coles HQ.
CREDITS
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Lawrence Lek
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Sadie Coles
ASSISTANT PRODUCER Joni Zhu
COMPUTER GRAPHICS BY Clifford Sage
SCORE BY Lawrence Lek
EDITED BY Andre Corsini
SOUND DESIGN Seth Scott
CAST
DIVA Xiaoyi Nie
GEOMANCER Joni Zhu
THIEL Steve Goodman
GUO Sophie Guo
WU Xiaoran Wu