Poetry Expo 24
/ 28 February 2024
Simbioparazitika (Symbioparasitica)
Interactive VR Poetry
Poetry Expo 24
Multimedia artist Valerie Wolf Gang began her artistic exploration of identity, the body and the skin that serves as a link between the inner and outer worlds, due to the personal ordeal of losing a large part of her skin for health reasons. This experience inspired her project "Anthropomorphising the Topography of the World", in which she started to virtualise and digitally archive the environments that intertwined with her "new" body.
In her latest project "Symbioparasitica", the viewer is transformed into an active co-creator of a virtual landscape where every action leaves permanent traces. This virtual forest, which is constantly changing under the influence of human presence, acts as a metaphor for exploring the relationship between man and nature, while raising questions about the sustainability, interdependence and vulnerability of our existence.
The project "Symbioparasitica" offers a poetic experience where users, wearing VR goggles and a "leap motion" sensor that virtually maps their hands, travel through a forest that transforms into human skin while listening to the author's poetry. This immersive VR experience allows a deep interaction with a virtual world that reflects the impact of the human body on the natural environment.
For a limited time at Poetry Expo 2024, this artwork is also accessible online (viewable on mobile phones or computer screens, where the virtual world can be viewed by moving a computer mouse), allowing visitors to virtually immerse themselves in the landscape and explore a poetic story of the harmony between humans and nature, highlighting the richness and depth of the poetry that weaves throughout the experience.
The project is part of the subthemes Climate Crisis and Poetry and Technological innovations in literature.
Author
Valerie Wolf Gang
Valerie Wolf Gang (Slovenia, Ljubljana, 1990) is an intermedia artist, director, videographer, transdisciplinary art researcher and pedagogue. She explores the relationship between humans and technology, participates in international research organizations and exhibits her work internationally (including Weltmuseum, Vienna; Institute of Contemporary Art, Singapore; Contemporary Art Centre, Portugal; Expo Garden, Beijing; Qubit, New York). She is the recipient of numerous prestigious scholarships and awards (Ivana Kobilca Award for current production, national Vesna Award for best film, Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, International Brain-Computer Interface Art Award, The Future of Innovation Award) and the founder of UV Arthouse, which produces experimental films, video installations and explores the scope of the new media. She lectures on contemporary artistic practices and film, she is a doctoral candidate at Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SAZU), an expert associate at the Institute of Fine Arts in Vienna and in German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (departments of Interactive Machine Learning, Intelligent User Interfaces, Multimodal Interaction), a mentor in the program of the Centre for Creativity of the Republic of Slovenia and works under the auspices of the of the Network of Art and Cultural Research Centers (RUK) research center. She is also active as a jury member in international film and new media festivals and is a frequent guest at world conferences on digital media at the intersection of science and art.
