LIFE 4.0 conveys the artists’ vision of the future through the use of a wide range of formal possibilities. Elaborate film projects, graphics that come alive and interactive through augmented reality on the screens of our smartphones, and the virtual reality experience ANIMALIA SUM, which was also presented at the world-renowned Sundance Festival in America, unite their artistic expressiveness in Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective’s largest exhibition to date.
Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective | Life 4.0 | December 11th, 2020 – February 26th, 2021
Overpopulation and famine are getting to the heart of humanity. Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective deal with the problem artistically and present the solution at the same time.
Augmented reality adds a digital layer to two-dimensional graphics. The vision of the future doesn’t just remain an image, but comes to life.
From December 11, 2020 to February 26, 2021, we show the largest exhibition of the two artists from Berlin to date.
Virtual reality has long ceased to be the distant dream of the future for which some still like to consider it. The technology which allows a much deeper immersion into artworks than traditional works of art can offer, was developed back in 1987. Since then, the technology has steadily improved and evolved, becoming more powerful and easier to use and has opened up to a broad spectrum of the population.
Today, virtual reality is mostly used in video games, but also in industry, military and business, to create a 360 ° simulation for their users. Art soon became aware of the technology and recognized it as a completely new way of making the artistic idea perceptible for the viewer. Art leaves the physical space and develops a purely visual experience to a personal experience.
The realization of an artistic idea in virtual space requires, beyond the creative creation, a certain knowledge of computer science about programming, digitization and implementation. In addition to the production of background graphics, three-dimensional models of the virtual world and soundscape, the virtual experience must tell an appealing story. With all aspects in order, VR is able to deliver an immersive experience. The direct involvement of the viewer in a work of art is probably the greatest strength of VR art.
Bianca Kennedy and The Swan Collective want to free the viewer from his passive role and let him become part of the work. The boundaries between proximity and distance, between actor and voyeur, are reinvented as a pervasive membrane, a barrier that can be crossed. The inclusion of the digital opens up new possibilities to get in touch with the imagined worlds and the artistic idea of the artist collective.
They want to tell us about the further evolution of humanity, a future in which humans, plants, insects and fungi fuse their strengths to arm themself against the challenges of a new world. Overpopulation, famines, climat change and the negligent handling of our plantet affects the development oft he human race. How exactly that might turn out is the background idea of the works of Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective. They started a cycle of works, revolving around those human problems.
Bianca and I have always been interested in building imaginary worlds and breathing life into things that normally can’t move or speak. We are very fascinated by the intelligence of plants and animals and how they can communicate with each other by non-verbal means.
The Swan Collective
LIFE 4.0 is the logical continuation of the exhibition activities of Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective. When they developed and exhibited the work LIFE 3.0 a few years ago, they were still working in two-dimensional space. The evolved version includes another layer and the step of their art into the digital space.
The inclusion of augmented and virtual reality adds a dimension and countless possibilities to the portfolio of the artist collective. Through technical aids, such as the smartphone and virtual reality glasses, visions become reality and empty spaces become the stage for virtual ideas.
The development towards a digitalized art originates from an evolutionary point of view. The possibilities of painting, prints, sculpture and video art are by no means exhausted, but can only offer the advantages of the individual medium.
LIFE 4.0 – the step into a virtual three-dimensionality
The outcome is a synthesis of the arts that coherently unites the advantages of all artistic disciplines in just one single masterpiece.
All linked works by Bianca Kennedy & The Swan Collective are available for purchase. Click on the respective image and follow the link to our online shop.