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A project by Flavia Mazzanti
Produced by Immerea

"Beyond My Skin" is an interactive installation exploring the hybrid relationship between bodies and their digital representation.

Realized with the support of: the City of Vienna - Culture and the
Austrian Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKÖS)

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Since 2019, I have been researching and exploring the relationship between hybrid bodies and their physical and social environments in my artistic practice. Through the use of immersive media, interactive installations, and experimental filmmaking, I often engage with artistic philosophical theories of post-anthropocentrism and poshumanism, with the interest in offering alternative perspectives on ourselves and our environment.

My latest project, “Beyond My Skin” (2023), is an interdisciplinary project presented in the form of an interactive real-time installation and hybrid performance. The project explores the hybrid relationship between human bodies and their digital representation with an experimental use of different technologies and immersive media, where visitors can experience a new form of self-awareness and representation outside of traditional binary and societal portrayals (classical avatars). In the installation, visitors interact with each other in their abstract virtual bodies generated in real time, while being physically present in the same space. Through virtual touch and encounters, they become interconnected with each other, forming a new shared hybrid body. This interaction aims to go beyond the skin, beyond physical and social constructs, creating a unique phygital experience.

In “Beyond My Skin”, motion capture technology (through 4 kinect sensors) is used to dissolve and transform the physical appearance of the human body in real time. Movements are recorded and translated into abstract digital configurations.

In this context, the combination of physical and digital environments plays a central role in creating a phygital world. Physical and digital are equally important here and neither can be seen without the other, both complementing each other in our perception and experience. This creates a balance between the two spaces and the third hybrid space that they generate together.

Through its interdisciplinary approach and by exploring the intersection of physical and virtual realms, the project significantly contributes to the discourse of the relationship between art and technology. It offers new perspectives on our existence in an ever-evolving technological landscape by exploring into the intricate relationships between human beings and the world, both physical and digital, and challenging traditional notions of materiality and embodiment from a post-anthropocentric perspective.

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Top View of the visitor's movements in space

Mixed Reality Experience

The Mixed Reality Experience, completed in April 2024, is the latest layer of this interdisciplinary project, realized for the Meta Quest3 glasses. Here, visitors can see the virtual bodies of the performers, previously recorded, brought back to the physical environment. The experience creates a phygital space where both physical and virtual merge, adding an additional layer to this entangled exploration between both realms.

Through temporal interventions in the city, I am interested in the act of bringing these abstract, virtual bodies - originated from the physical world - to different public spaces, questioning not only the boundaries between physical and virtual, but also between public and private spaces and forms of embodiment.

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Installations & Performances

May 2023: AIL, Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab, Vienna (AT). Project's Premiere and Live Performance
September - November 2023: esc medien kunst labor, Graz (AT). Group Exhibition "Desert of Realities"
October 2023: ORF Musikprotokoll, steirischer Herbst Festival, Graz (AT). Live Performance
October 2023: Ö1 Zeit-Ton Magazine, Austrian National Radio. Interview and Installation sound
December 2023 - February 2024: UAAD, International Media Platform, New Art City. Online Group Exhibition "Alt-Alterity". Non-interactive, immersive installation.
March 2024: Deep Space 8K, Ars Electronica Center, Linz (AT). Live Performance.
March - May 2024: Solo Exhibition ASIFAKEIL, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna (AT). Non-interactive installation

Credits

A project by: Flavia Mazzanti
Produced by: Immerea

Concept and artistic direction: Flavia Mazzanti
Project Management: Design and Installation: Manuel Bonell

Performers: Bita Bell, Olivia Hild, Imani Rameses, Viviane Tanzmeister

Sound: Brootworth
Technical Artist: Tobias Mayer
Programming: Catherine Joy Calupas, Michael Bonell

Realized with the support of: the City of Vienna - Culture and the Austrian Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil
Service and Sport (BMKÖS)

Links

Technical Rider
Mixed Reality Experience

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