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The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica.
Crossover
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (_The Great Commission_, Matthew 28:18-20)
A new European colonial policy began with what is called the Reconquista, when Christians recaptured the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula. And there was another reason for colonial expansion besides seeking gold: to spread the Christian faith. With the first colonies on the Dark Continent in the 15th century, not only traders and workers arrived in these still largely unknown regions, but also representatives of the church. As time passed, their influence on the populations there grew.
In the short film _Crossover_, I pose questions about religion and identity. Missionary work and the conversion of foreign cultures by representatives of the church are at the heart of this investigation. And yet this complex topic is not analyzed in a factual manner but explored on a more cinematic, symbolic level. In my short film, Christian missionary activity has been transferred to the animal kingdom in the forest. Indigenous populations are represented by fire bugs and set against a garden spider (with a cross-shaped mark on its back) that tricks the insects into converting.
Essentially, religions give orientation and enable people to navigate a world shaped by culture and conventions. A world view that has been formed by religious faith generates values and norms, objectives and purposes, and these form systems of meanings that, in turn, give orientation and so provide specific readings and modes of living. Every religious community defines itself by a number of iconographic allegories and these make it addressable and outwardly unmistakable. In _Crossover_, a pilgrimage – arranged artfully along signposts with the firebug’s image – leads through the forest and ends at the cross, the central symbol of the Occident.
A new European colonial policy began with what is called the Reconquista, when Christians recaptured the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula. And there was another reason for colonial expansion besides seeking gold: to spread the Christian faith. With the first colonies on the Dark Continent in the 15th century, not only traders and workers arrived in these still largely unknown regions, but also representatives of the church. As time passed, their influence on the populations there grew.
In the short film _Crossover_, I pose questions about religion and identity. Missionary work and the conversion of foreign cultures by representatives of the church are at the heart of this investigation. And yet this complex topic is not analyzed in a factual manner but explored on a more cinematic, symbolic level. In my short film, Christian missionary activity has been transferred to the animal kingdom in the forest. Indigenous populations are represented by fire bugs and set against a garden spider (with a cross-shaped mark on its back) that tricks the insects into converting.
Essentially, religions give orientation and enable people to navigate a world shaped by culture and conventions. A world view that has been formed by religious faith generates values and norms, objectives and purposes, and these form systems of meanings that, in turn, give orientation and so provide specific readings and modes of living. Every religious community defines itself by a number of iconographic allegories and these make it addressable and outwardly unmistakable. In _Crossover_, a pilgrimage – arranged artfully along signposts with the firebug’s image – leads through the forest and ends at the cross, the central symbol of the Occident.
Director/Producer/Compositing: Fabian Grodde
3D VFX Supervisor: Alexander Schumann
3D Artists: Christian Brinkmann, Stephan Hempel
Director of Photography: Raphael Köhler
Kameraassistenz, Kamerabühne: Christian Brinkmann
3D VFX Set Supervisor, Continuity: Stephan Hempel
Line Producer: Martin Goldschmidt
Setphotography: Nora Ströbel, Nina Röder
Catering: Jennifer Haase
Set Decoration: Sissy Koch, Fabian Grodde, Martin Goldschmidt, Alexander Schumann
Best Boy: Falk Ritter
Texture Painter: Stephan Walther
3D VFX Supervisor: Alexander Schumann
3D Artists: Christian Brinkmann, Stephan Hempel
Director of Photography: Raphael Köhler
Kameraassistenz, Kamerabühne: Christian Brinkmann
3D VFX Set Supervisor, Continuity: Stephan Hempel
Line Producer: Martin Goldschmidt
Setphotography: Nora Ströbel, Nina Röder
Catering: Jennifer Haase
Set Decoration: Sissy Koch, Fabian Grodde, Martin Goldschmidt, Alexander Schumann
Best Boy: Falk Ritter
Texture Painter: Stephan Walther
Fabian Grodde (DE), born in 1983. In 2005, he began studying media design at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2010. Since 2010, Fabian has been a junior compositor at Parasol Island.