LAIR is an artistic research project that intertwines nature, real-estate investments, mythology and technology through a series of installations and videos.
At its core LAIR revolves around the divide between artificiality and nature, how the privatization of nature and scientific infrastructures coalesce in contemporary real-estate investments, the subversive mechanics of squatting and mythopoesis as a device of collective worldmaking.
The project builds on long-term research that includes ecological and economic aspects of biodomes, on and offline nature simulations, digital worldbuilding tools, natural representations of anarchist subcultures, zoontology and human-animal communication.
LAIR2 - Interactive 2 channel video & research game installation at Ludwig Museum
LAIR1 is the first artifact of LAIR. The installation was exhibited in a forest on the shore of the Danube river as part of a popup exhibition titled 'Petrichor' on the 18th of June.
The screens of the installation are portals through which a virtual world unfolds, bringing its architecture, environment and temporary inhabitants to life. The virtual world is built around an abandoned biodome.
The screen/portals operate in different timelines: they glimpse on a deep historical time, comparing mythological creatures to new species that evolved in the 21st century, and they forecast speculative narratives intertwining fallen architectural investments and predictions for the near future. This mutating timeline system employs the mechanics of nonlinear storytelling as well as generative associations as the main narrative tool of the installation.
The stainless steel, glass and plaster alloy frame structure encompassing the screens serves as the physical prosthesis of the virtual world in the installation. The frame combines the hallmarks of gamer culture with the aesthetics of industrial black boxes and prehistoric artifacts.
This prosthesis is a narrative and symbolic black hole in the story. It digests the possible meanings and readings of research materials, dissolving the logic of the structure, space and story in a malleable chain of association. The plaster modules of the prosthesis are unknown objects of use, they are signs that seem to have symbolic meaning. The characters of the virtual world try to interpret these artifacts in different world views and models.
Using the tools of world-building and unworlding, the two main characters of the story work together to break down their own worldviews and rebuild an egregore based on mutual sharing. They weave their feelings and thoughts with the virtual environment to generate their mythology.
Photo documentation by Barnabás Neogrády-Kiss