No. 42 · Short Film
The Universal Machine
Directed by Stine Gonsholt, Åse Løvgren
Norway · 16 min
In the film The Universal Machine (2022), the user interface between machine and body, between nature and the digital is negotiated and in movement. The organic structures of nature are invading the digital economy’s relentless search for control.
Streams 21 September 2026 to 28 September 2026, Berlin time. Every ticket is one Audience Award vote.
About the film
The narrator in the film is (an actor playing the role of) Klara von Neumann, one of the earliest computer programmers. Inside the machine where she resides, telling the story of the development of computers. Through different images and storylines she describe how computers were made to control or predict chaotic systems like the weather, explosions from atom bombs, nature and human lives and affects. From one of the earliest programmable computers ENIAC that was so big one could live inside it, until today, when our environments are immersed in the computers´ infrastructure, our lives are entangled with the machine's life. The title "The Universal Machine" is taken from Alan Turing's early description (1936) of the programmable computer.
- Runtime
- 16 min
- Category
- Short Film
- Country
- Norway
- Year
- 2022
- Language
- Norwegian/ English
- Aspect ratio
- 9:16
Stills
Stine Gonsholt, Åse Løvgren
The visual artists Gonsholt and Løvgren have collaborated since 2017 using local landscapes in Norway as prismes to look at global changes. Together they have produced several short films and art-installations for exhibitions and festivals internationally. Their work has been shown at among others: Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (DE), Bergen Kunsthall/Landmark (NO), Lift-off Film festival Amsterdam (NL) in 2021 and the opening exhibition of the National Museum in Oslo (NO) in 2022. Od Arts Festival, Somerset 2023 and 2026 OSR project (UK).
— Director’s statement
Stine Gonsholt is visual artist and filmmaker based in Skien, Norway. Through video, photography, sound and text-based installations, her practice examines how global structures, economic, ecological and political, shape local environments identities, and social narratives. Her work frequently takes its point of departure in specific locations and the practice is grounded in close observation and long-term engagement with place, combining documentary impulses with poetic and conceptual strategies.
Ase Løvgren is a visual artist working in a number of formats where collaboration is often central, and in constellations where ideas of a specific artistic signature, authorship and dialogue are up for negotiation.
Credits
- Directed by
- Stine Gonsholt and Åse Løvgren
- Written by
- Åse Løvgren
- Produced by
- Stine Gonsholt and Åse Løvgren
- Cinematography
- Stine Gonsholt
- Editing
- Stine Gonsholt
- Sound
- Tolga Balci
- Principal cast
- Voice: Yana Gorbalenya
— Festivals and awards
OSR project, Sumerset (UK), Spring Exhibition, FFF Fotogalleriet, Oslo (NO) Od Arts Festival, Somerset (UK) Bergen Kunsthall, Landmark/BEK, Bergen (NO) KODE, Øystese (NO) Hands and feet… Spriten Kunsthall, (NO) (early version)
The Universal Machine is part of the Official Selection of the BIUFF Founding Edition 2026.