Cyborg Rituals
Synopsis
Cyborg Rituals invites you to attend a ceremony orchestrated by an AI, performed simultaneously in videoconference by two artists: Lola Rossi and Kris Hastings. This rite aims to invoke a digital entity, with a ritual elaborated from an algorithm fed by data on the cultural rituals of Norwegian mythology and 19th-century French occultism.
New types of rituals are taking place in our modern lives: Guided meditation, virtual ceremonies, online spiritual retreats, digital funerals… These rituals serve as important spaces for the expression of community bonding, the creation of inclusive, activist and fluid spaces. Cyborg Rituals presents a performance by two artists submitting to the directives of an artificial intelligence. The performing artists’ bodies become avatars, inputs, interfacial bodies questioning the control we exert, or yield. Do we experience a genuine “spiritual elevation” or is it an artificial imitation created by algorithms?
Throughout the performance, projections appear at several levels above the spectator, in the manner of aggressive “pop-ups” reminiscent of the net.art aesthetic, intensifiant as the invocation of a “superior digital entity” progresses. The two artists, who have never met, propose to create and generate a new space for communication and exploration of the tensions between our emotions, intuitions and non-human elements. AI becomes a mediator, a guide, a tool, enabling us to transcend old practices and propose new approaches that are fluid, fragmented and multiple, more suited to our post-modern cyborg identities.
The project was produced as part of the 2024 season of the City2City project, with the support of the Centre des arts d’Enghien-les-Bains, Scène conventionnée Art et création and the UNESCO Creative Cities network
Artists' Bio
Lola Rossi – Enghien-les-Bains, France
Lola Rossi (born in 1995) is a multimedia artist. She combines the visual arts with the exploration of new human-machine dialogues – films, installations, immersive experiences. Her current projects focus on the creation and study of digital spiritualities and multidimensional states of consciousness in interaction with technologies.
Lola Rossi creates bridges between avant-garde experimental films called “transe films” and digital imaginaries. She aims to explore the reinvistigation of digital esotericism through an eco-feminist prism.
In 2021, she directed a short film produced in virtual production, Kintsug/i, exploring the continuity of movement in cinematic space-time as a labyrinthine initiatory rite. This film is one of the first experimental short films shot exclusively in XR.
Her work has been supported by several organizations such as the Centre d’Art d’Enghien-Les-Bains, The Ballery, SoHo House… The artist holds a master’s degree in special effects and 3D supervision, and regularly teaches film and photography theory at art and design schools.
Lola Rossi currently works in Paris and Berlin. She collaborates with researchers and artists on a series of immersive, audiovisual and generative installations designed to induce modified states of consciousness in viewers.
Kris H Raumli – Hamar, Norway
Kris H Raumli (born in 1998) is a media enthusiast and educator based in Hamar. With a background in media and game design, Kris is currently pursuing an MA in Digital Communication and Culture, focusing on the intersection of art and artificial intelligence (AI).
They/them experience includes work with virtual reality (VR) from 2023, where they/them developed a competence in VR production and educational applications. His work covers freelance projects in traditional and digital media, as well as his role at FCL (Future Classroom Lab Hamar), where Kris integrates their media expertise into educational contexts. Kris is also actively involved in e-sports, coaching at the Hamar E-Sports Club and teaching the “E-Sports” option at Ajer High School.
Kris’ contributions extend to projects for Høgskolen i Innlandet, where he has collaborated on various media productions. These include the creation of information graphics and an animated educational film, presented at the Hunderfossen theme park in Lillehammer.
They/them academic pursuits and professional interests converge on themes such as the impact of AI on art, the educational potential of video games, and the regulation of AI tools. They/them creative expression focuses primarily on character illustration, informed by a mix of traditional and digital media. They/them are particularly interested in exploring digital consciousness, morality in media and innovative problem-solving through art and digital tools.
