Mária Júdová, Constantine Nisidis
Kykeon
Kykeon is an immersive virtual reality experience that explores shamanism as a way to reimagine our current society. Inspired by ancestral knowledge and wisdom, it invites the audience to take part in a new ritual.
The VR experience
reflects the loss of a sense of community and empathy, as well as a lack of concern for others. A search for a way forward, examining traditions, and the ways of the tribe. It takes ancient culture and civilization and ritualistic
and folkloric practices as an inspiration to re-examine them and look at them as a way for us to move forward.
Ancient shamans wearing masks were considered to be bearers of the spirit of the mask, the medium between the spirit
and the tribe. The purpose of the mask was to communicate with ancestral spirits, celestial supernatural forces, and the spirit of the forest to shed their importance and identity. But nowadays we tend to wear a mask to hide our true
identity.
In Kykeon, multiple state-of-the-art techniques and technologies are combined in order to set out on a journey through the many states of being. Visitors, wearing VR masks, will have a chance to look into a hidden realm
through the eyes of a shaman and enter a virtual world inhabited by spirit beings, celestial mechanics, and forgotten harmonics. Viewers might create and hold a space that they use to communicate and interact with these forces, in
turn awakening a part of themselves that they may have forgotten about.
Mária Júdová is an independent visual artist who has been investigating the creative potential of technology for over a decade. She is
particularly interested in exploring the intersection of digital and performance arts. Her work ranges from (interactive) installations and virtual reality experiences to audio-visual performances.
She received her BA in Digital
Media from the Academy of Arts (SK) and MA at the Center for Audiovisual Studies (CZ). She has worked with renowned bodies such as the Choreographic Coding Lab (DE), the Rambert Contemporary Dance Company (UK), and the Yamaguchi Center
for Arts and Media (JP).
Her works have been presented worldwide: Sonar Hong Kong (CHN), Laboratorio Arte Alameda (MX), the Japan Media Arts Festival (JP), Immersive Expressions of Siggraph (NY), the Athens Digital Arts Festival
(GR), Sensorium (SK), and the Berlin Atonal (DE), amongst many others. Her work has received awards at the Japan Media Arts Festival (JP), B3 Biennale (DE), the Nexon Computer Museum (Korea), and Zealous (UK).
Constantine Nisidis is
a visual artist based in Athens (GR). He works with minimal and abstract forms and structures, while showcasing a great deal of code mastery. The Greek artist is well known in the vvvv community for his live coding performances and
interactive works that destroy and reconstruct themselves randomly. Both sound and image interact in real time and space, continuously alternating roles between static and motion, towards an unknown direction.
Nisidis graduated
from the Athens School of Fine Arts and attended ENSBA (École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts) in Paris. Since then, he has been involved in several workshops and seminars on art, education, and technology. He has collaborated
with Greek and foreign artists and taken part in several group exhibitions (in Greece and abroad) and has also had a solo exhibition.
//mariajudova.net
//www.nisidis.com