Sophia Bulgakova (director & artist Otherworlds) & Leo Scarin (creative developer).

She/ her + He/him
Friday 12 May
Audiovisual Art Assembly (AAA), Oedipus Brewing

Sophia Bulgakova is a Ukrainian ArtScientist, interdisciplinary artist, and activist who explores the relationship between cultural identities, perception, and imagination through her immersive installations and performances, encouraging viewers to change their perception of reality. She has exhibited her work at CTM Festival, Sonic Acts Festival, and FIBER Festival. Leo Scarin is a creative technologist, artist, and developer who delves into the social, political, and environmental impacts of digital culture through his interactive and immersive installations. His work has been featured at TodaysArt, Rewire, and The Grey Space in the Middle, among others.

Together, they will dive deeper into their project OTHERWORLDS, a participatory ritual performance that uses XR technologies to create a new visual and experiential language for personal and communal transformation. The project is searching for common grounds to revive and reimagine relations and connections to nature, technology, and each other by creating a new transformative, immersive ritual experience. It uses innovative sensorial tools such as abstract colour-based spaces using MR (Mixed Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) environments, spacial interactive soundscapes within physical and virtual dimensions, collective choreographic elements performed by the participants themselves, concluding the experience of the audience inside the piece to be a sensory overload unique adventure. During the talk, Sophia will share her insights on working with Ukrainian traditions, paganism, and XR technologies, as well as the effect of the current war in Ukraine on her practice and the project. Together with Leo they will showcase the latest prototypes and visuals of the upcoming experience and delve into the technical development of the piece. 

SOPHIA’S WEBSITE →
SOPHIA’S INSTAGRAM →
LEO’S WEBSITE →
LEO’S INSTAGRAM →
OTHERWORLDS INTERVIEW →