Collaboration is at the heart of what we do as artists, this year I was given the great opportunity to work with visual artist Elhem Younes on two VR installation pieces at the XOR Space Loophole Exhibition part of the Timcheh Music Festival 2023. The theme focused on the concepts of resonance and psychology. I will post the spatial audio files separately, but you can enjoy a taster of the exhibition below.
The Monster Within: a Resonance of a Revelation by Elhem Younes & Neil Bruce
This series is an exploration of intimate thoughts, emotions, or psychological patterns that each one of us might experience throughout life.
In the age of automation, digitalization, control, and profit-oriented efficiency, art and culture are not reflections of knowledge systems, socio-political struggles, or catalysts of change, but rather means of aestheticizing the system’s agenda. As a result, all the cultures may disappear in favor of a single universal pseudo-culture of consumption and exploitation.
The cultural impacts of this process are intensified when it is enhanced by artificial intelligence models of art creation in which a system produces satisfying and entertaining results in a closed loop. Instead of critical art, this system promotes profitable entertainment without social symbolism, reflections, or signs of activism. Digital art, with all it has in common with artificial intelligence, can be both the first victim and the most powerful tool of this hegemony.
● Would it be possible to find a loophole in this closed system by speculating about possible approaches to digital art, culture, and technologies that draw from other cosmologies, knowledge systems, moral values, and cultural heritage?
● What is the potential of digital art and the post-colonial approach to deal with the hegemony of this modern pseudo-culture?
● How can artists and cultural workers, amidst the pervasive control of tech giants, reimagine the notion of online social presence and collective movements through collaborative efforts and co-creation, fostering transformative actions that challenge the hegemony of these corporations?
Loophole is a virtual reality group exhibition of interactive ecosystems that is developed by XOR Space and Timcheh e.V., and consists of artworks by a group of artists from diverse cultural, ethnic, and technical backgrounds who have worked in search of aesthetic knowledge around the mentioned questions.
It is a collective and transcultural exploration of new narratives and methods to think about digital art and technologies outside the realm of mainstream culture promoted by large corporations. The project is premiered at the Timcheh Festival along with a hybrid (online-physical) panel discussion with the artists about the outcome of the project, their pieces, and creative processes.
Artists
Shanshan Wang
Elhem Younes & Neil Bruce
Sudhir Ambasana
Veronika Batzdorfer & Alec Gordon
Kateryna Repa & Hugo Lioret
Discussion Panel Moderator
Andrew Dryhurst
ART Direction, Technical Development
XOR Space
Production
XOR Space, Timcheh e.V.
