Dmitry Kavka
Dmitry Kavka is an artist creating projects on the cusp of digital and material worlds. In his artistic practice Dmitry uses various combinations of methods and media to research paradoxes of new sensuality, social shifts, and visual transformations in the digital sphere. Dmitry works with both new media, such as digital sculptures, video, static computer games; and more traditional ones, like graphics. He experiments with new methods of artistic representation within the digital realm, for instance, in 2013 he created an online game featuring a set of digital sculptures. He held an exhibition of his graphic works on Google Maps in 2017, which was shown at the 57th Venice Biennale.
These immersive videos are derived from the computer game, created by the artist, which is based on a hypothesis that in a completely digitalised world of the future humans will grow unnecessary as species and will vanish. In this post-apocalyptic world stories about humanity will take a mythical form, akin to ancient Greek mythology, which is heavily integrated into the today’s popular culture and entertainment. However, this new mythology will not have to be centered around notable characters and events, but in turn will reflect the scenarios of everyday human survival, anxieties, miseries, and misfortunes. These myths will lay a foundation for a computer game, where a human will become an interface, a mediator between the internal emotional world and the external gaze of a player/spectator. The AI will take on the role of the spectator in the game since humans have always been a dataset in its digital consciousness. These amusement parks for the AI will allow the digital citizens of the world to immerse themselves into the sphere of human emotions and suffering, forming the landscape of new entertainment and pleasures. Amusement parks were originally created for humans’ joy and entertainment. In the future their purpose will flip to serve the AI, evoking the memory of humanity through emotional thrills. In the game, the digital consciousness is simultaneously the player and the medium, the hero and the spectator, the mathematical algorithm, and the echo of humankind.
