Festival RealMix 0.1 is a virtual event organized by Instituto Distrital de las Artes (Idartes) in Bogotá, an arm of the Cultural Ministry of Colombia that promotes art, science and technology with a particular focus on projects dealing with virtual and augmented realities.
For the first edition of the festival in November 2020, Hyphen Hub–along with +CODE from Argentina–were the two international organizations invited to partner with Festival RealMix by presenting a selection of emerging and established new media artists. Hyphen Hub artists presented a series of social VR/Mozilla Hub installations and the artists in conversations with Asher Remy-Toledo. Participating artists included:
Carla Gannis
In wwwunderkammer social VR- Mozilla Hubs, New York-based artist Carla Gannis explores the boundaries between physical and virtual reality, nature and artifice, and science and science fiction in a contemporary, interconnected culture and society, while working to build a deconvolved, post-human, feminist future.
Claudia Hart
Inspired by visionary architects of the 18th century, New York-based media artist Claudia Hart presented an online virtual social space as non-specific and imaginary. For her piece Welcome to the Doll’s House, she created an improvisation showcasing the computational music of New York composer Matthew Gantt who played virtually through a 3D avatar within Hart’s world and presented through Mozilla Hubs. In this live virtual event, Gantt’s composition and binaural sonic performance harmonized with a pre-recorded sound score created by Kurt Hentschlager. The event was produced by Hyphen Hub and performed first at RealMix2020 and a week later at Maker Faire Rome from the end of November to early December 2020. The invited audience chose a personal avatar to enter the space, then participated in a salon-style conversation following the performance where each guest interacted with each other in the form of a physical meeting.
Fito Segrera
Agnosis: Lost Memories, created by Colombian Artist Fito Segrera, was presented and live-streamed in Mozilla Hubs Social VR platform on December 1st 2020. A computer interface constructed by the artist captured moments of mental absence, and through an AI program by Segrera these moments were recreated and displayed in a performance piece. The music was created by New York-based spatial sound composer Mattew Gantt.
Mattia Casalegno
Aerobanquets RMX is a multisensorial expedition encompassing sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch that was originally inspired by the Futurist Cookbook, the provocative Italian compendium of surreal recipes and fantastical dinners published in 1932. The experience takes participants on a journey that combines virtual and augmented reality, motion tracking, 3D modeling plates, food and fantasy—a seven-course, hour-long, mind-altering art and dining experience. Hyphen Hub presented the full-length 3D video which could be seen in VR as well and afterward held a conversation with the artist about his creative process for this particular piece.