MAX HATTLER: neo media artist



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UNTIL 21 APRIL 2024 O/S and TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇) are screening at the 36th Filmfest Dresden in Germany.
22-28 APRIL 2024 TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇) is screening in a special programme of stereoscopic 3D films at Busan International Short Film Festival in Korea.
THU 2 MAY 2024, 18:30-20:00 Relentless Melt No. 33: Experiments in Graphical Sound and Animation is screening at Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, Hong Kong. The screening + Q&A presents premieres and previews of brand new optical sound and experimental animation works by Max and his students.
7-12 MAY 2024 O/S is screening at Anifilm Festival in Liberec, Czechia.
10-19 MAY 2024 O/S is screening at Flatpack Festival in Birmingham, UK.
15-26 MAY 2024 Relentless Melt No. 34: Animation Abstractions from Hong Kong - a programme of Hong Kong experimental animation curated by Max Hattler - is screening at the 20th Athens Digital Arts Festival in Greece. O/S and TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇) are also screening at the festival.
28 MAY - 2 JUNE 2024 TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇) is screening in the Animation Avantgarde international competition at the 21st Vienna Shorts in Vienna, Austria.
3-8 JUNE 2024 TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇) is screening in the programme Time for the Masters at Animafest Zagreb in Croatia.
4-5 JUNE 2024 Max is presenting the paper Revisiting Graphical Sound at the Animafest Scanner XI - Symposium for Contemporary Animation Studies in Zagreb, Croatia.
9-15 JUNE 2024 O/S is a screening in the Animation Off-Limits Competition at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France.
25-30 JUNE 2024 TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇) is screening at the 17th Fest Anca International Animation Festival in Zilina, Slovakia.

for recent screenings and exhibitions please see individual films' sections. for recent press and publications, see here.
2024 SELECTED In April, the research paper Relentless Melt: Visual trends and aesthetics of contemporary visual music films in Hong Kong by Max Hattler and Terrie Man-Chi Cheung was published in Visual Communication (Sage). In March, Relentless Melt No. 32: Hong Kong Abstracted, an hour-long selection of Hong Kong experimental animation curated by Max was shown at Listasafn Árnesinga - LÁ Art Museum in Hveragerdi, Iceland.
2023 SELECTED max spent the second half of 2023 on sabbatical in europe, predominantly as a visiting artist at film university babelsberg in postdam, germany. in december, TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇) received a special mention from the student jury at stoptrik international film festival in poland! max presented relentless melt no. 31: abstract and experimental animation from hong kong at close-up cinema in london. relentless melt no. 30: vertical abstractions, a programme of experimental animation co-curated by jay hofmann-forster and max hattler, screened at clockenflap festival in hong kong. in november, max gave an artist talk at london college of communication, university of the arts london. he presented the screening relentless melt no. 29 at university for the creative arts in farnham, england, and relentless melt no. 28 at film university babelsberg in postdam, germany. max was also a guest speaker at film university's colloquium in media studies research where he discussed new and in-progress works in the talk sounding patterns: animated experiments in optical sound. in october, max attended punto y raya festival in lisbon with an exclusive preview of P/S and the premiere of O/S which won the grand prize of the festival! in september, max spoke at the expanded animation symposium at ars electronica festival in linz, austria. in july, max was a jury member of the animation competition at psarokokalo international short film festival in athens, greece. in june, the paper expanded stereoscopy: alternative aesthetics for artistic expression in 3D films, co-authored by terrie cheung and max, was published in convergence (sage journals). max presented the screening relentless melt no. 27: hong kong neighbourhoods reanimated, as well as a paper about vœrtex, at the 34th society for animation studies conference at rowan university, glassboro, new jersey, usa. in may, relentless melt no. 26: new animated abstractions screened at run run shaw creative media centre, hong kong. the screening, curated by max, premiered abstract and experimental animations by hong kong artists, including max's new film TWENTYTИƎWT (二〇二〇). in april, max presented a paper at the animex research and innovation conference at teesside university, middlesbrough, uk. max was the project advisor for the hong kong neighbourhoods digital art exhibition organised by the hong kong tourism board at pmq, hong kong, which was comprised of films made by max's students. in march, max was a jury member for the animation category of the ifva awards held at hong kong arts centre. and the paper artistic exploration of stop-motion animation in virtual reality: spatializing the analog techniques of 2D replacement and object animation by using digital cutout and realtime rendering co-authored by max - together with franziska bruckner, julian salhofer, clemens gürtler and matthias husinsky - was presented at IEEE VR 2023 in shanghai. in february, matter and motion won the aanaa award for best short film at aanaa animation film festival in antwerp, belgium.
2022 SELECTED in december, the article into the vœrtex: case study of a stereoscopic abstract animation installation (co authored by max hattler and terrie man-chi cheung) was published in animation practice, process & production, volume 10, issue 1. in november, max was a panelist at the senior scholars roundtable session on innovative teaching at cityu. five of max's films were included in the media art exhibition beyond the space in gwangmyeong-si, korea. experimotion 1 (see below) was presented in the dimensions of animation exhibition at lucerne university of applied sciences and arts in lucerne, switzerland. in september, a programme of one minute shorts curated by max screened at supernova digital animation festival, and relentless melt no. 25, an online exhibition of stereoscopic and experimental films and music videos curated by max and pk (king deluxe / break) showed at the shipwreck laguna in vrchat. divisional articulations was featured on labocine issue #80 "electric visions". in july, max was the invited guest artist for experimotion 1, an artistic research-creation workshop for the research project vrinmotion – expanding stop-motion and motion-capture in virtual environments at st. pölten university of applied sciences in austria. in june, serial parallels won a special jury prize at tehran international animation festival. in may, max was a speaker at the leonardo laser talk transition regimes: cultures of media art II organised by aalborg university, denmark, and at the animators' roundtable forum: hong kong animation at hong kong university of science and technology. in april, max was granted academic tenure and promotion to associate professor at city university of hong kong. he also received cityu's teaching excellence award 2021-22! in march, max held a lecture and workshop for the media arts cultures erasmus mundus joint master at aalborg university, denmark. in january, max was the recipient of a prestigious president's award, bestowed on "faculty who have made exemplary contributions to research and professional education that have helped city university of hong kong achieve local and global distinction." yay!
2021 SELECTED in december, max's paper the abstracted real: speculations on experimental animated documentary was published in the international journal of film and media arts, special issue ecstatic truth v. max also gave a guest lecture to dirk koy's class at university of applied sciences and arts northwestern switzerland. in november, relentless melt no 24, curated by max hattler, screened at pacific northwest college of art, willamette university, portland, usa. in october max held a 1-day workshop about dramaturgy in abstract films for students of the re:anima - european joint master in animation and presented a paper at the 7th faia - international academic forum on animation, organised by anima festival and the national university of cordoba, argentina. in september, max co-curated a screening of visual music films and took part in a visual music panel with aimee mollaghan and robin parmar at light moves festival of screendance, ireland. max also gave virtual artist talks to animation students at university of pennsylvania and middlesex university. serial parallels won the audience award at cinema urbana architecture film festival in brazil. relentless melt no 23: cityu hong kong student experimental animation, curated by max, screened at supernova digital animation festival in denver, followed by a live streamed educators discussion with snow yunxue fu, faiyaz jafri and max hattler, chaired by ivar zeile. in august, serial parallels was released online and became a vimeo staff pick! in july, max's paper abstraction and meaning in the animation of hong kong artists was published in the journal animation practice, process & production (ap3). serial parallels received the defa promotion prize animation at filmfest dresden and a prädikat "besonders wertvoll" from the deutsche film- und medienbewertung (fbw)! max was a speaker at virtu(re)al playgrounds: how to digitally expand a city, a conference organised by the peter weibel institute for digital culture at university of applied arts, vienna. in june, max presented papers at the 4th international conference on stereo & immersive media, at art machines 2: international symposium on machine learning and art, at the popular culture association annual conference and - together with an accompanying relentless melt screening - at the 32nd society for animation studies conference. max also was a jury member for asifa-hollywood's animation educators forum faculty grants. in may, max was a juror for the animation avantgarde competition at vienna shorts 18th international short film festival. max presented a paper at the association for chinese animation studies inaugural conference organised by hong kong university of science and technology. serial parallels and vœrtex showed at art machines: past/present, a media art exhibition co-curated by jeffrey shaw and richard allen at indra and harry banga gallery, city university of hong kong (24 nov 2020 - 23 may 2021). in april, max received several honours from city university of hong kong: an honourable mention, teaching excellence awards 2020/21, an innovative cityu-learning award, and the scm research award 2021, bestowed by richard allen, dean of the school of creative media. serial parallels won the award for best experimental animation at t-short festival, a merit award at digicon6 asia hong kong, and a special mention at 2annas festival in riga, latvia! max gave a guest lecture, expanding animation?, for the animation research group at arts university bournemouth, invited by prof. paul ward. max also did a presentation about his acim research fellowship entitled roar: retinal optics art research, at run run shaw creative media centre, hong kong. in march, max gave an artist talk for master in animation arts students at lusofona university in lisbon. in february, max was on the experimental film preselection jury for stuttgart international festival of animated film (itfs), germany. relentless melt no. 20: hong kong animation experiments screening + curator talk was presented by animation;experiment in collaboration with new media society, tehran, iran. max also gave an artist talk to undergraduate students at hong kong baptist university's academy of visual arts (ava).
2020 SELECTED in december, relentless melt no. 19 screened as part of seeing sound symposium. serial parallels won best abstract film at london international animation festival, all while max was a jury member (not for the abstract films of course!). serial parallels also received a special mention at festival tous courts in france. lastly, max was a speaker at the ecstatic truth v: the age of the absurd animation studies symposium, as well as for the guest speaker seminar series of computational media and arts at hong kong university of science and technology. in november, max was a speaker at the 21st advanced imaging international festival's ai^2 techart conference organised by chung-ang university in seoul. serial parallels received special mentions at kurzfilm festival hamburg in germany and cinanima in portugal. in october, max gave a talk for big cartoon festival, moscow and served as a jury member at tofuzi international animation festival in batumi, georgia. london international animation festival presented the relentless melt no. 18: hong kong refractions online screening of experimental animation made in hong kong, curated by max. serial parallels won awards for best animation at montreal festival du nouveau cinema and best video at videomedeja festival in serbia, plus a special mention at animatou festival in geneva. in september, serial parallels received a special mention at guanajuato international film festival in mexico. max presented a paper at the animafest scanner symposium, and an artist position at the ars electronica expanded animation symposium, and was featured in the festival's hong kong garden branch. max did a 3-hour artist talk for the 8th animation support program in hong kong. relentless melt no. 17 screened at supernova digital animation festival in denver, where max was also a jury member. max did zoom q&a's for fantoche animation festival and seoul international extreme-short image & film festival. in august, max contributed video projections for pierre jodlowski's mad max concert at roxy, ulm, germany. ex-is: experimental film and video festival in seoul presented max as a featured artist in their indi-visual section. serial parallels won the new signs audience award at the 16th lago film fest and a special mention at malatestashort film festival. relentless melt no. 16 received an honorary mention at iso film fest. relentless melt redux II came online as part of scm v+ gallery. it presents short excerpts of films made by students in max's abstract and experimental animation class at city university of hong kong, and will remain online until april 2021. in june, serial parallels won the off-limits award at annecy international animation festival, an honorary mention at prix ars electronica, and a special mention at vienna shorts! max also did an artist talk for vienna shorts and an interview for annecy. in may, serial parallels won the award for best film at kinodot experimental film festival. in march, serial parallels received an honourable mention at videoformes festival.
2019 SELECTED in december, matter and motion received the award for best abstract film at london international animation festival, and serial parallels received a jury mention at fiva: festival internacional de videoarte in argentina! relentless melt no. 15: hongkongské abstrakce, screened at filmasia festival in prague, czechia. this programme of hong kong abstract and experimental films was curated by max hattler and presented in prague by iresa cho, hong kong-based animation artist and vice-chairperson of relentless melt. in october, max was 'director in focus' at taichung international animation festival in taiwan, with a comprehensive retrospective, artist talk and hattlerizer 4.D stereoscopic audiovisual live performance, as well as jury duty. also, later in october: relentless melt no. 14: 香港實驗動畫精選, a programme of hong kong animation curated by max screened at zhong shan 73 in taichung. in september, max's solo exhibition receptive rhythms showed at goethe-institut hong kong. max co-organised/hosted the symposium lightplay: experimental animation and the bauhaus legacy at city university of hong kong. speakers included tamas waliczky, robert seidel, verina gfader, nicola hens, harald kraemer, tom wolf, yu ka ho albert and max hattler. audio-visual live performances by robert seidel and max hattler (full schedule). max also guest-curated two events of the year-long 原格破裂／elemental dynamite animation research project at floating projects in hong kong, with presentations by two international animation experts, robert seidel: phantom horizons and verina gfader: neighbours and aliens. in july, matter and motion and serial parallels both won awards at san gio verona video festival! max's essay 'rupturing visions: towards an expanded stereoscopy' was published in the ars electronica book expanded animation: mapping an unlimited landscape. in june, max attended annecy international animation festival in france with matter and motion, and was on a panel at the 31st society for animation studies conference in lisbon, portugal. in may, max attended stuttgart international festival of animated film as a jury member and to present an in persona screening, a rework vs. max hattler live set, and relentless melt no. 11 and school of creative media screenings. max also spoke at the festival's sas symposium animation and science. afterwards, max was at anifilm in trebon, czechia as a jury member, and to present a retrospective, a masterclass, and a hattlerizer 4.D stereoscopic live performance. max was also a juror for animex awards, uk, and presented relentless melt no. 13 at floating projects, which included the hong kong premiere of serial parallels. in april, max spoke at the symposium 100 years bauhaus: designing the future at hong kong university. in march, the book experimental animation: from analogue to digital came out, which contains an interview with max. in february, max played live with 3x3x3 at processing community day, hong kong. in january, max presented a paper, vj'ed, and screened abstract films at art machines: international symposium on computational media art (iscma 2019) in hong kong. the relentless melt no. 10: year of the bore screening was held at floating projects at jccac, shek kip mei, hong kong.
2018 SELECTED in december, max was interviewed by clot magazine and presented a guest lecture at the create! makerspace at cityu library, city university of hong kong. in november, relentless melt no. 9: audio visions, a programme of hong kong abstract and experimental animation curated by max, screened at clockenflap festival in hong kong. in october, max attended punto y raya festival in wroclaw, poland with a range of works in different programmes. in september, relentless melt no. 8: hong kong in motion screened at supernova festival in denver. in august, max was in london where he presented relentless melt no. 7: moving image hong kong, performed live at strange umbrellas #21, and hung out at goldsmiths (for the scm creative computing summer school). in july, max presented relentless melt no. 6 screening and exploding dynamo: audio-visual performances at dynamo in odense, denmark. he spoke at confia - international conference on animation and illustration in esposende, portugal, and gave an artist talk at museum of digital art (muda) in zurich, switzerland. in june, max was in montreal, canada, where he spoke and exhibited at the 30th society for animation studies conference at concordia university, and presented rétrospective max hattler at cinémathèque québécoise; he also performed live at fest anca in zilina, slovakia (and divisional articulations won a special mention!), and led an abstract animation workshop at the creative media summer school at st. pölten university of applied sciences in austria, where he also presented the film programme relentless melt no. 5: hong kong rhythms. max also lectured and exhibited at the animation x experimental exhibition at fuzhong 15 in new taipei city, taiwan; played live visuals for blood wine or honey's fear & celebration album launch in hong kong; and presented relentless melt no. 4: integrated services audiovisual network at floating projects in hong kong. in may, divisional articulations won the award for best abstract and non-narrative animation at anifilm in czech republic, and sync won the main prize at muvi5 - video and moving image on synesthesia and visual music in spain! the screening relentless melt no. 3: alternate realities hong kong screened at under the radar in vienna, and relentless melt no. 2: hong kong audio-visual abstractions was shown at splice festival in london. in february, max was a keynote speaker at the symposium multiversal experiences – parallel universes in virtual and augmented reality at nanyang technological university in singapore.
2017 SELECTED in december, max curated and presented relentless melt no. 1: hong kong music abstractions at floating projects in hong kong. in november, max was in kuala lumpur, malaysia, where he attended klex: kuala lumpur experimental film, video & music festival with a solo screening, an artist talk and an audiovisual performance. he also gave a guest lecture at universiti kuala lumpur. at 56 moon animation festival in chengdu, china, max was on the jury and presented a solo screening and a lecture. max also spoke at exim 2017 cross-straits experimental animation festival at macao museum of art. and divisional articulations won a special mention at cutout fest in queretaro, mexico. in october, max presented a paper at asia animation forum at bucheon international animation festival in korea. divisional articulations won best experimental film at reanima and grand prize at supernova! (read about it in prosthetic knowledge, imperica, cent magazine, zippy frames, idn, videostatic and sharesynth). in september, max attended ars electronica festival in linz, austria, with deep space 8k: expanded abstractions and an hour-long in persona screening. max spoke about broken visions in stereo at ars electronica's expanded animation symposium and was a jury member for the st. louis-based video loops at central library competition. in august, max returned to london (for london animation club) and to goldsmiths (for the scm creative computing summer school). in july, max was a speaker at the 29th society for animation studies conference at the university of padova in italy. the german pavilion at expo 2017 in astana, kazakhstan, showed an hour-long retrospective of max's work. in june, max attended the visual music award in gelnhausen, germany, with a special screening and as a jury member. max also presented a paper at the ridch conference on digital art, design and advertising at the open university of hong kong. in may, divisional articulations premiered on nowness and was featured on booooooom, animation world network and others. max was a juror at the 1st red bird student film festival at hong kong university of science and technology, and at animex awards at teesside university, middlesbrough, uk. max played live visuals in hong kong: with dj sniff at extended eclectics at xxx gallery, and with blood wine or honey at studio 9. in april, max was in germany where he attended filmfest dresden with animated: max hattler retrospective and as a jury member (see mdr tv's unicato special on filmfest dresden, which features spin and an interview). max also gave a guest lecture at stuttgart media university. in hong kong, sonar hong kong presented max hattler - sonar+d, a screening of max's films and five new works created by his scm students for electronica duo isan; afterwards max performed live visuals with blood wine or honey.
2016 SELECTED in november, max presented a paper at the inaugural annual china animation studies conference at chengdu university in china. he also provided live visuals for mad professor at clockenflap festival in hong kong. in october, max performed live with dj sniff, shane aspegren and sune petersen at the school of creative media in hong kong. max attended punto y raya festival at zkm center for art and media in karlsruhe, germany, where he was a jury member and presented a masterclass and a full-length screening of five. while in germany, max also gave a lecture on animation art and video activism at university of mannheim. in september, max was in beijing, where he gave an image power lecture at renmin university and presented III=III at the hong kong and macau visual art biennale at beijing minsheng art museum. since august, max is a fully-fledged, tenure-track assistant professor at city university of hong kong. in july, he spoke at the ridch conference on digital art and film at the open university of hong kong, and he was once again on the jury of the visual music award in germany. in june, max was in singapore as a speaker at the society for animation studies conference at nanyang technological university, and as a guest lecturer at lasalle college of the arts. collaborative mega project five premiered at k11 in hong kong as part of the electronic vibes exhibition. in may, max presented a guest lecture at scad hong kong. in april, all rot won the award for best abstract film at third culture film festival in hong kong, read the interview. in march, max's 3D stereoscopic animation III=III premiered at post pixel: animamix biennale 2015-16 in hong kong, and spring energy premiered on the 20-metre high video wall at hirmer in munich, germany. in february, max lectured in california at calarts, cal state la, and university of southern california. january saw the release of shapeshifter, the official festival trailer for stuttgarter filmwinter.
2015 SELECTED in december, a very large increase received a special mention at london international animation festival. in november, max showed films and played live at clockenflap festival in hong kong and at summit at sea on board a cruise ship between miami and the bahamas. a very large increase received a prize-of-effort at the 17th tbs digicon6 asia awards hong kong. in october, max premiered the hattlerizer 3.0 performance at the german pavilion at expo milano 2015 in milan, italy. –O\| received a special mention at videomedeja in novi sad, serbia. in september, dan torre's article persistent abstraction: the animated works of max hattler came out in senses of cinema online journal. max was a jury member and presenter at indie-anifest: 11th korean independent animation film festival in seoul, korea. he also played a vj set at dreamscapade at dreamlike bubbles in hong kong. in july, max presented a paper at the society for animation studies conference 2015 in canterbury, uk. in june, max attended melbourne international animation festival with an hour-long screening and a render animation conference presentation. he was also on the juries of the visual music award and animafest zagreb, and presented a paper at the animafest scanner II symposium for animation studies. in may, max was in seoul, korea, where he performed live at seoul museum of art and at club vurt, and lectured at wco korea and hongik university. the many faces of fernando pessoa (redux) premiered in denver. in april, max spoke at resonate conference in belgrade, serbia. in march, max was on the juries and held masterclasses at tehran international animation festival and at monstra in lisbon. the many faces of fernando pessoa premiered at monstra as a 4-channel installation. in february, max made prismatic, a 5-sec short of the week bumper. unclear proof received a special mention at jaipur international film festival in india.
2014 SELECTED in december, max moved to hong kong to take up a faculty position at the school of creative media at city university of hong kong. before leaving europe, he held a week-long masterclass at sint lucas antwerpen in belgium, lectured in germany at institut für musik und medien düsseldorf and cologne game lab, and in the uk at university of the west of england, goldsmiths, university of london and middlesex university. your highness screened as part of off the air: sports on adult swim. in november, stop the show won best commissioned film at bradford animation festival. max held a workshop at california institute of the arts, a lecture at university of southern california, and a retrospective screening at echo park film center in los angeles; he also taught in the uk at the royal college of art and at norwich university of the arts. in october, max was interviewed for the barbican film podcast. he presented a masterclass and was a judge at london international animation festival. he also spoke at london college of communication, london animation club and aalborg university copenhagen. in september, a preview of —O\| was presented at museo de bellas artes in caracas, venezuela. max played at trendelenburg festival in spain, lectured in london at london met + national film and television school, and did a q&a at last friday shorts in southend on sea. in august, unclear proof received a diploma at golden diana film festival in austria. in july, a very large increase + unclear proof won awards at marin county festival of short film + video in san rafael, ca, usa. in june, max successfully completed his professional doctorate in fine art at the university of east london with the viva exhibition audiovisual abstractions. max was also on the jury + had a profile screening at fest anca in slovakia (interview). stop the show received a special mention at one shot international short film festival in armenia, and max was on the art of noise panel at festival 214 at topman in london. in may, max was in caracas, venezuela, where he led an animation workshop at the british council + presented a lecture at museo de arte contemporaneo. in april, max lectured at the school of creative media, city university of hong kong + performed hattler vs. hattler at itfs in germany. in march, a very large increase won first prize + stop the show received a special mention at the visual music award in germany. max did a q&a at tate britain in london. in february, max performed at reykjavík visual music · punto y raya festival in iceland, where shift scooped third prize in the short film competition. max lectured at middlesbrough institute of modern art as part of animex festival + in belgium at kask, kaskcinema + sint-lucas in ghent + at sint lucas antwerpen in antwerp. the wrong - new digital art biennale came to an end - it had featured as one of its pavilions wilderness of mirrors, curated by max + featuring work by sebastian buerkner, ian gouldstone, noriko okaku, memo akten, robert seidel, matt abbiss, papaya gonzales, sune petersen, marcus wendt + motomichi nakamura. in january, max was on the jury + played live at filmwinter in stuttgart, germany.
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		hattler: to bed (2003) + alpraum (2001)




		five (2017)




		III=III (2016)




		hirmer: spring energy (2016)