SAZARUS - Viktor's text

PDF version : File:Viktor Textonmethod.pdf

Viktor Timofeev - Text On Method (Sazarus)

I’m currently working on a project titled Sazarus, an umbrella term for several autonomous series of works I am developing in tandem. Below I will describe the project’s interconnected elements, which presently involve choreography, programming, sculpture and drawing. The project is united by themes of rule-based economies, entrapment, n levels of mediation, improvisation, science fiction and non-human agency.

The choreographed performances that form Sazarus involve sculpture and custom computer programs, running on at least one computer and method of display. The performances are embodied and enacted by performers who follow instructions, though earlier versions also involved my own participation. The performances function somewhere between rule-based choreography and a real-time infomercial – characterized by a discrete logic unraveling before an audience that might find itself both nurtured and alienated . The instructed performers provide mediation between the virtual space of the programs and the physical space of the spectator, attempting to confuse and influence the behavior of both.

Broadly speaking, the performances are somewhat of an ecosystem – closed economies characterized by layers of interlinked processes that are dependent on purposeful, improvised and incidental user-input. In previous projects, this “user-input” has involved such actions as rubbing a wooden egg that functions as a joystick, roaming a wireless mouse across a tabletop that also acts as a screen, walking around an invisible circle rigged up to a webcam and software that translates these movements into data, and yelling into a microphone that registers sound only above a certain threshold. All of these actions were then used to affect a program that was projected back to both the spectator and the performer, providing feedback which in turn directed the performer’s next move. This means that no action goes without quantification or purpose. Its hierarchical significance however remains blurry and potentially illegible.

More specifically, the computer programs depict pseudo-fictional scenarios. These include the inside of a nano-scale microorganism tasked with developing micro-processors formed from its own survivalist instincts, operating a terraforming station on the surface of Mars, solving a perpetually re-shuffling immersive Sudoku puzzle and developing a generative cipher for an evolving fictional language.

The drawings that form Sazarus all take the human body as a starting point. Departing from observational drawing, limbs are rendered disfigured, dismantled, augmented and impotent on a scale of 1:1. The drawings attempt to function like symbolic gloves – waiting for an audience to insert its own corporeality and find itself implicated in their logic.

The programs are built in Unity3D, modeled in Cinema 4D and mostly written in C# programming language, but also involve a substantial amount of sketching, research and trial and error. Youtube tutorials, community message boards and F.A.Q. sites provide the know-how necessary for the project, and ideologically align the project within a DIY, semi-collaborative mentality. The programs’ haptic counterparts (the performed bodily inputs that effect the programs) develop from studio-based experiments with enacting self-imposed rules and parameters. They also take inspiration from a spectrum of ergonomic and non-conventional methods of interfacing with computers, both fictional and non-fictional, such as eye-tracking, mouses for the disabled, infrared keyboards and gesture identification . I have found it productive to present these works in iterations, potentially re-shuffling elements of several works and “upgrading” with each subsequent version, implying an infinitely permutable indeterminable form. This allows for feedback, quality maintenance, and an overall experimental approach with every attempt.

Similarly, the material (drawings, sculptures) side of Sazarus usually evolves out of doodles and experiments, though they usually possess a singular point of authorship. Unlike the programs and performances, the drawings are static markers in time and space, serving as personal points of reference to a strain of thought that may have been super-ceded in the course of a longer term parallel work.

Sazarus is a direct evolution from earlier projects. Most recently, I developed a computer game titled Proxyah which serves as a direct predecessor to Sazarus. Proxyah relied heavily on user-interaction amidst a high degree of autonomy, and was effected by randomly generated timers. It was also part of a larger cosmology of works that took the Proxyah game as a central starting point. For example, I made a guidebook, zine, collection of songs and series of paintings based on the themes surrounding the game. Similarly, Sazarus extends beyond a singular mode of actualization and embraces an interconnected, pluralistic approach to producing work.

Following this trajectory, it made sense to include an instructed human player as part of the work, and research rule-based choreography, particularly its relationship to the birth of cybernetics and behavioral analysis. Additionally, including a human performer also further distanced the spectator from the software and created an additional layer of mediation – the performer.

Another interest of mine is to work on programs that are triggered by non-human physical agents, such as falling water, electronic toy bugs, and swinging doors. Therein I hope to find a way to build a pool of an infinitely varying inputs, a pseudo-machine whose sole purpose is to be a reliable source of erratic entropy.

The drawings that form Sazarus are also developments from my own personal history with the medium. Drawing is the foundation of my entire practice as it was my first introduction into art making. While it has transformed in its handling of line, space, colour and composition over the past years, its primary function still remains. Drawing gives me space to express impulsive ideas and constructions in a way that straddles the virtual and the material, as well as ebb and flow into works in other mediums and timescales.

There are several key texts which have been fundamental to informing my work in the recent past. These include Erik Davis’ Techgnosis, Jonathan Crary’s 24/7, Keller Easterling’s Extrastatecraft, and Rosi Braidotti’s The Posthuman. I have recently discovered the work of Simone Forti, which together with Yvonne Rainer’s performances from the early 1970’s, have had a profound influence on my current interests regarding rule-based choreography. Additionally, I consume a lot of science-fiction. Most recently, I have found the writings of Neal Stephenson, Ursula Le Guin, China Mieville to be most relevant. Valve’s (a game development and digital distribution company) Portal series, The Chinese Room’s Dear Esther and Davey Wreden’s The Stanley Parable have also been of particular importance, in the realm of games, interactive fiction and world making.