WIRE by FilmEU is opening its Horizon Mission research to a new generation of artistic researchers. Two Student Pilots, led by student and doctoral researchers, have been selected to explore, through film and sound, the questions raised by the EU Horizon Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities.
The two projects take very different routes. One goes back to the artist-led cooperatives of 1960s New York to ask what they might still teach us about urban life. The other turns to lithium, the element inside the batteries that power our devices, to imagine what a post-extractive future might sound like.
"Cooperative Cities" extends Romas Zabarauskas' (LMTA) doctoral research in film, which explores the personal mythopoeia of Jonas Mekas. Developed at the Tallinn University (BFM) Production Lab, the project will culminate in an exhibition at the WIRE Summit 2027 in Bratislava.
"Lithium" is a spatial sound study in experimental film centred on an element that runs from the early universe to the batteries powering our devices, and from mineral waters to psychiatric treatment. Developed at the LMTA Spatial Sound Lab by Nico Espinoza, the project turns the relations uncovered through research into lithium into operational schemes that organise field recordings and synthesised sound.
Together, the pilots draw on the labs of two FilmEU partners, LMTA and Tallinn University (BFM).
