[ISEA2022] Artists Statement: Predrag S. Šiđjanin, Luka Z. Tilinger, Maja S. Budžarov & Nina B. Zvezdin — Spiral of Words

Artists Statement 

Second Summit on New Media Art Archiving
June 10, MACBA – Convent dels Àngels. Artists Talk.

Keywords: creative writing, virtual reality, narrative, performance

SPIRAL OF WORDS is a platform for creative writing in VR, based on an idea realized in 1998. Three authors from three locations (London, UK; The Hague, the Netherlands and Novi Sad, Serbia) sent texts at defined time intervals, starting from words to sentences over paragraphs to short stories, all this took place via e-mail/the internet, creating a common narrative in a defined location that built a spiral of words in a fictional space.

The VR project SPIRAL OF WORDS is a kind of ‘artistic recycling’ as well as an archive of the idea of a realized textual narrative performance.

The narratives in SPIRAL OF WORDS have been partially modified, they symbolize the original idea in different colors. The project is refreshed, enriched, and different in relation to the original performance, it is actually a reinterpretation of a creative collaborative idea, in a way that VR media allows. And that is the direct interaction of the users, where they freely communicate with the given words, choosing them, moving them, and creating their own meta-text, in any form they desire. Certain words in the spiral, when selected, activate short audio and visual effects that are symbolic to them. All selected words of the newly created narrative can be changed, rearranged, or rejected. SPIRAL OF WORDS is currently an unrepeatable experience, in which user’s meta-text only lasts for the duration of the session.
https://virtualunit.org

  • Predrag S. Šiđanin, Ph.D. – multimedia artist, founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Dean and full professor at the Faculty of Digital Production, EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
  • Luka Z. Tilinger, MA – illustrator and programmer, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Assistant professor at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
  • Maja S Budžarov, MA – ceramic and multimedia artist, co-founder of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Associate professor at EDUCONS University, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia.
  • Nina B Zvezdin, MEA – architect, multimedia artist and musician, member of //VirtualUnit creative laboratory for virtual reality. Currently residing in Pisa, Italy on internship.