Summary:

Créaction: Symbiosis is an immersive installation that allows two people to create enormous dynamic 3D paintings in VR collaboratively. This installation combines Sonya Khalfallah’s gestural aesthetics from her Traces series with John Desnoyers-Stewart’s approach to facilitating social VR experiences.

Participants wear headsets and paint through amplified gestures that extend far beyond their bodies. Each equipped with a different dynamic brush, participants see only their hands and the traces they create with their partner, focusing them on their interaction with the sculptural form and each other. To spectators, the participants’ movements are transformed into a simultaneous dance performance augmented by a colourful tableau. Their movements leave unique, ephemeral traces that briefly linger before vanishing—a temporary virtual imprint representing the momentary symbiosis in this chance encounter.

Director Bio:

Sonya Khalfallah Riahi is a multidisciplinary artist-researcher with a PhD in Aesthetics, Science and Technology of the Arts from Université Paris 8. She creates interactive, immersive art and performances that merge bodily gestures with emerging technology. She is interested in involving the public in her artwork to enable creativity and connection.

John Desnoyers-Stewart is an interdisciplinary artist-researcher and PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology. His multi-user installations transform real bodies into ethereal forms and incorporate physical touch in the virtual world, encouraging immersants to see and experience each other in a new light.