Artist Statement

Other Realities sub-programme

This artwork is an exploration of our reality and augmented reality. The Creature is an example of how we have created another environment, another world through technology. This environment is something we interact with daily, It is the internet of things, the digital space; whether it be Facebook, Instagram or Google; this artificial reality has become both real and alien. We can engage with the internet to connect with people virtually, create social networks, play multiplayer games and make friends, however we interact on a capacity that is disconnected, without a medium to engage with this environment all of these connections are lost. The Creature has been designed to visually portray the fragility and alien like environment we have created, the Creature is from this artificial technologic world as it attempts to interact and ingest aspects of the real world it grows frustrated in finding that it cannot actually grasp reality, it is a futile attempt. Whilst it can see us and try to interact, it can only be seen through the tools we have created, and even when we can see it and react to it, we can't truly interact with it. celtic-balverine.deviantart.com

• Simone Beneke-Graham (South Africa) is a UI and Brand Designer, as well as freelance concept artist and graphic designer. She is currently finishing her Masters in Digital Art, focusing on pre-production design within video games and the effects of hyper-reality on the industry. Her passion is in Character and Creature design – nothing is more exciting to her than crafting a unique creature design that hasn’t been seen before. She has always been fascinated with how we view characters and creatures, how we try and relate or connect to a character. The idea that we can tell what role a character plays purely on visual clues fascinates her.