December 22 @ 6:50 am
A virtual erotic poem directed by two women presented at ICA
“Nightsss” is a virtual erotic poem, directed by Weronika Lewandowska and Sandra Frydrysiak. It was developed at VR/AR Studio of the Visual Narrative Lab (vnLab) and the Lodz Film School in Poland. Thanks to VR goggles, the audience of festivals have an opportunity to immerse themselves in an interactive 3D experience of dance and poetry.
World premiere of Nightsss was at the prestigous 2021 Sundance Film Festival. It has been also selected for the lineup of this year’s edition of goEast Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Bucharest Dance International Film Festival, VR Pavilion at Resilienze Festival in Bologna and Cinequest Film Festival, where It has been awarded with Best VR Sound Design award. Now, it will be presented at the Polish Film Festival Kinoteka in London.
The script of the 7-minute experimental animation, was based on a spoken word poem by Weronika Lewandowska, where she employs onomatopoeia, using sounds characteristic for the Polish language, to create soundscapes that break language barriers. The directors were also inspired by a research project, focused on perception of dance and movement in Virtual Reality, which was part of their doctoral dissertations.
– We directed VR “Nightsss” thinking about the delicate sphere of human perception. That is why it is a very poetic, sensual and embodied experience. We offer to an international audience immersion in the sound structure of the Polish language. We have designed interactions with a poem that, thanks to hand movements in the VR environment, enable the immersed person to ‘play’ on the vocal layer – says Weronika Lewandowska.
– “In the “Nightsss” world, we also meet a dancing figure, who invites us to explore the virtual space and simultaneously develop kinetic empathy. The players intuitively mimic the movements of the figure, and when they move, the level of the VR immersion increases – there is scientific proof for this phenomenon,” adds the researcher, Sandra Frydrysiak.
“Nightsss” light installation at ICA has been created by Munchingsquare – british based & polish led creative technology studio in collaboration with the director of the VR experience.
Bio:
Weronika Lewandowska, Ph.D. – is the director, screenwriter, and the executive producer of the “Nightsss” VR experience. Weronika holds a doctoral degree in humanities. She is VR Creative Consultant for BioMinds Healthcare XR system, which explores a new way for neurological rehabilitation. Weronika researches new and digital ways of storytelling and immersive experiences in performative artistic practices. She is a spoken word poet and performer. Her poem “Nightsss”, which she performed at slam poetry events in over 20 countries on three continents, has been translated into 13 languages. The poem was presented at ”The Liberated Voice – Sound Poetry” event at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2019), which showcased the most important phenomena and sound poetry of the 20th and the 21st centuries. In 2020, She is also a recipient of an art scholarship, granted by the City of Warsaw (2021). She is also a lecturer of creative writing and transmedia art at the University SWPS and design trends at School of Ideas in Warsaw. Artist in Residence of The Performing Art International Visegrad Fund in Prague in 2020 (360° Poetry Performance for CrossAttic/Bazaar Festival). Artists in Residence of the MCRUK (Network of Centers for Research Arts and Culture) Programme, Klibla2Lab (Association for Culture and Education, Maribor) in 2021. Holder of The Artistic Scholarship of the City of Warsaw for 2021 and The Scholarship for Poets SDK Warsaw 2021.
Sandra Frydrysiak, Ph.D. – is Assistant Professor at the Department of Cultural Studies at SWPS University in Warsaw, is a director and screenwriter of the “Nightsss” VR experience. She holds a doctoral degree in humanities and cultural studies. Her research focuses on new media, dance studies, and gender studies. She has written a book on “Taniec w sprzężeniu nauk i technologii. Nowe perspektywy w badaniach tańca” (Dance in the Recursion with Science and Technology. New Perspectives in Dance Research) (2017). She is a member of the Interdisciplinary Humanities/Art/Technology Research Center at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Sandra is also an antidiscrimination educator, specializing in gender mainstreaming, and a supervisor of the “MyGender” Research Club at SWPS University.