Meta-trixx - This is not a ritual
The project examines links between rituality and trickstery (of senses) in the post-truth era.
In the Meta-Trixx project the archetypal shapeshifter/ trixxter becomes an instrument of meaning. As we enter the Metaverse, the Trixxter character can convey many deeply seated issues around reclaiming human beings as metamorphic in the convergence of alternate realities where we witness treachery of images - deep fake, post-truth, simulated realms.
Trixxter is a shapeshifter. The project researches notions of trickstery as it is conveyed in visual and oral ritual language, through the ritual use of riddles and optical illusions and other sensory tricks that allow the viewer to be taken into the simulation.
“Ceci n’est pas un pipe” as famously written on a painting of a pipe of Magritte. How do digital and simulated spaces affect (trick) our sensory imagination of our bodies? How does the embodied internet evoke new spiritual territories and inner experiences of our bodies? And most importantly, when is trickstery considered healing and when is it treacherous?
Meta-trixx marks a rebirth of the trickster myth in the post-club context, in the convergence of alternate realities where we witness treachery of images - deep fake, post-truth, gamified and simulated realms.
RADICAL EMBODIMENT
in the treacherous Metaverse territories becomes key to integrating inorganic, organic and animal dimensions, a path to explore notions of performativity vs authenticity in the pool of online avatars, identities, and practices. The human animals loves to be mesmerised and loured into treacherous territories, witnessing what is “not a ritual” - a hyper-reality made of symbols and signs that become the truth itself (Boudrillard). Is embracing the plasticity of the simulation the only way to transcend it?
This project manifested as a collection of sounds, research texts, photogrammetry, photography, 360 videos, social media content, and garment research. From researching the trickster myth across cultures, simulation and virtual reality theories, ritual clothing, shapewear, body enhancement fabrics, invention of lycra, and origin of optic illusions, Gestalt theory, Bertollini’s law and the Law of similarity.
“This is not a pipe” ; in an all encompassing simulation, we witness “What is not a ritual” A shapeshifting dance in a post-club context, attuning to digital landscapes as mutidimensional unities of life integrating inorganic, organic and animal dimensions.
This project is supported by CBK Rotterdam.
Collaborators: Klemen Brank, Vitan Dzhus, Brencha, Sara Rman