ENTANGLEMENT
Immersive Hybrid Installation

VISIT THE NEW PROJECT WEBSITE

In Winter of 2022, while spending time in this soul-soothing place, we found ourselves wondering: what kind of embodied visual and sonic narratives could we experience by cultivating a heightened state of awareness with these fellow inhabitants of the more-than-human world?

Cross-disciplinary artistic project of the intricate connections between an oak forest, its trees, vegetation, animals and us human beings

Drawing upon a merging of contemporary dance, vibrant imagery, augmented reality with 3D enhancements, and captivating soundscapes to better understand our place in the biosphere, dance artist Maria Nurmela, photographer/filmmaker Vesa Loikas and composer Jane Sheldon turn to the ancient oak grove in Vaarniemi, Kaarina, Finland. Their artistic exploration will result in an immersive multichannel installation, an aesthetic-embodied ecosystem in which nature, human biology and the layered reality of the meta-level intertwine in a networked narrative, intended to stimulate our senses and emotions – and prompt contemplation about our role in preserving biodiversity.

Coexistence and dialogues with the more-than-human world

CREDITS:

Concept: MARIA NURMELA & VESA LOIKAS
FIlm Director, Cinematography & Photography: VESA LOIKAS
Choreography: MARIA NURMELA
Sound and Music: JANE SHELDON
Performers: JONNA AALTONEN, MARIA NURMELA &
GESA PIPER
Mentored by BART HM VANDEPUT

Original poems "Mein Leben ist nicht diese steile Stunde"
& "Die Liebende" by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926)

Locations: Vaarniemi Nature Reserve in Kaarina, Manilla Culture Factory Turku and Taiteen talo Turku, Finland.

In February 2024 we pitched ENTANGLEMENT at MORE MORE MORE Ice Hot Nordic Dance platform in Oslo - this was truly an honor for us since only 39 out of 450 applicants from all the Nordic countries were selected.

ENTANGLEMENT AR art work is a part of the FANTASIA exhibition in Vienna, Austria - opening April 24th 2024

Supported by

"Entanglement" emerges from embodiment, contemporary dance, visual media, and sound design, incorporating AI and AR technologies. The philosophical concepts of autopoiesis, enactivism, and phenomenology inspire us. Autopoiesis guides our research on life’s endless interconnectedness and the autonomous and self-creating nature of living systems. Phenomenology encourages us to examine our immediate, pre-reflective experiences and uncover the underlying meanings and structures that shape our perceptions and actions. Through enactivist principles, we aim to develop a richer understanding of the complexities of human experience, which then informs the construction of the immersive installation.

Our collaboration with humans and more than human entities thrives on a constant and genuine dialogue. We work with shared somatic practice to create a certain state of attunement We aim to achieve empathic co-existence to cultivate conversations with the oak forest inhabitants. We use immersive technology to deepen the dialogue between us and more than the human world. This dialogue reveals subtleties that we express through a new visual, performative meaning and form.

The final work will be a hybrid, durational and site-responsive installation with live performance. It will consist of loop-shaped, multi-channel video projections, physical and virtual sculptures with immersive soundscapes. Three performers, Maria, Jonna and Gesa, inhabit the choreographed landscape for about 50 minutes.