Lodz Film School
ul. Targowa 61/63
90-323 Lodz
T +42 27 55 820
info@vnlab.org
Month: September 2022
Control Negative – the exercise in loss
Monika Masłoń’s project Control Negative is an exercise in loss. In this interactive installation, the viewers are invited to participate in a process during which they get to know the mechanisms of illusion, train in the lack of control and influence, observe what happens when they lose what they are used to. Using VR technology, the author attempts to put the viewer in a state in which strong emotions – such as frustration, helplessness, anger and sadness – reveal the basic human mechanisms, including the illusory conviction of being able to control one’s life. The unreal world of the experience – a negative version of the real world – is a kind of training room for getting to know yourself and your emotions better. The user is led through consecutive chapters of the piece, which allow for a gradual transition from activity to contemplation.
Monika Masłoń – a graduate of the W. Strzemiński Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. She defended her diploma in 2008, in the Photography Studio under Prof. Grzegorz Przyborek and in the Photography and Video Studio led by Prof. Konrad Kuzyszyn. In 2011–2016, she was a doctoral student at the L. Schiller Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź, where, under the supervision of Prof. Józef Robakowski, she completed her doctoral dissertation See You Again. She is involved in artistic activities, mainly through realizations based on audiovisual material.
Dead City – an interactive opera experience
Dead City is an interactive experience that draws on Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera of the same name about the fate of a Flemish city and its inhabitants, who are living with a cult of the memory of the past. In Krzysztof Grudziński’s version, it is a city of the pandemic era, empty and lonely, but full of digital life. The poetic narrative, based on the original libretto, is accompanied by singing, contemporary music and travestied elements of the original composition. The visual layer draws upon the style of vaporwave and gifs.
The plot and libretto are based on the opera, written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold in 1920. In the original, from a century ago, the action took place in Bruges. The contemporary Dead City is a pandemic-stricken Warsaw. Empty, depressing and nostalgic. Paul, the main character, is in mourning for his recently deceased wife, and visits places that were important to their relationship. We peek inside their home, visit their favourite cinema Iluzjon, go on a date at the Palace of Culture.
We pass Rajkowska’s palm tree, a symbol of their first vacation, and walk to the Powiśle train station where they met. We admire the city skyline from the Intercontinental Hotel, and walk to Zbawiciela Square. The dark depths of the Vistula river, by the Świętokrzyski Bridge, is where they parted. Paul dissolves and penetrates the morphing black space. We hear the voice of his beloved Maria. She bids him farewell with the words: “Everything is a memory, nothing dies, because there is nothing. Be calm, be calm. Nothing dies, because there is nothing and yet everything is.” In the alternative version, the main character is Maria.
The users are guided by a narrator who resembles our inner voice. At some point, the users become the hero of the opera. Depending on which character they chooses at the beginning, they are either Paul or Maria. The users can move through the scenes/levels, using a technique of smooth movement (continuous movement). They follows the narrator, an internal voice placed in their head. The voice leads the users to specific locations where, by interacting with certain objects, they activate holograms and snippets of music. In this way, the viewers discover the plot.
Krzysztof Grudziński is a director, screenwriter, producer of games, films and music videos (including bAranovski, Agim, Natalia Nykiel), virtual production manager and narrator, and a professor at the Warsaw Film School. He won the Studio Munk program 30 Minutes, and produced the feature film Magdalena. He is the creator and producer of video games: Apocalipsis: Harry at the End of the World, Aida, This is the Zodiac Speaking, Barnfinders VR, and Poopin. He has been nominated and awarded at the KTR, YACH, ARS iNDEPENDENT, Fryderyki, Cinemaforum, and Pixel Heaven festivals, among others. He was also a finalist at the Papaya Young Directors competition.
