This year Sónar Realities+D becomes a VR playground curated by Fabbula, in partnership with Octobre Numérique – Faire Monde.
Is climate change something we can play with? Fabbula’s “Permacomputing Playgrounds” research program introduces avant-garde artists whose virtual realms evoke our ties with innovation, recreation and the non-human. From June 13 to 15, 2024 in the Project Area of Sónar+D.
Jérémy Griffaud
The Garden, 2024
The Garden immerses you in a fantasy garden filled with unique plant species, backbones of a mysterious technological production. As you take on the responsibility of caring for this production site, your mission to manage the plants turns to chaos.
This project evokes our relationship with nature and with living beings, which evolves with scientific innovations. It questions the ethical aspect of the artificialization of life, which is becoming an increasingly rationalized and productivist resource. What are we going to do with Nature at a time of advances in artificial intelligence, robotics and chemistry?
The Garden has been supported by the Villa Médicis, the CNC, Fonds [SCAN], Institut Français, Festival New Images, and Le HUBLOT (Nice).
Lo-Def Film Factory (Francois Knoetze & Amy Louise Wilson)
Subterranean Imprint Archive, 2021
The Subterranean Imprint Archive is a research project culminating in a VR experience. Inspired by the film Akira (1988) by Katsuhiro Otomo, the work situates the viewer in a counter-archive which traces the legacy of technopolitics in Central and Southern Africa.
The starting point of the work is Shinkolobwe, a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the uranium used in the Manhattan project was extracted. The image of Congolese ore exploding over Japan is a symbol of the earth-shattering devastation whose impact continues to be felt on the African continent. While the eyes of the world were transfixed on a city engulfed in a ball of light, a long shadow was cast. The Lo-Def Film Factory’s work involves archival research, dramaturgy, and visual strategies associated with video art, collage, sculptural installation and Virtual Reality, to explore and create space for collaborative, experimental community storytelling.
Alex Sinh Nguyen
Potential Objects, 2022
Potential Objects transports you to a wild virtual workshop where you sculpt whimsical artifacts from abandoned remnants. The game invites players to incorporate components crafted by others into their own creations, opening up endless recycling opportunities.
Users have access to a vast library of pre-designed elements which they can freely and intuitively assemble to create a multitude of objects, exploring different combinations, materials, shapes and functions. The project goes further by introducing a collaborative dimension, enabling each user to incorporate parts designed by others into their own creations. This creates a network of interconnections and infinite possibilities, where individual creations enrich future designs, encouraging non-linear creative thinking and the exchange of ideas between participants.