Intersection of Universes

Since 2018, Benjamin Efrati and Shu Isaka have been working as an artistic duo exploring the intersection of video games,  performance, experimental cinema and interactive narration. 

In 2021, during a residency at La Gare (Langon, France), they created a first VR experience prototype using NextMind brain sensor. The project will be resumed in June 2023 during a residency at Dimensions Art Center in Chongqing. During this period, Benjamin Efrati and Shu Isaka will explore multiple practices (animated and still images, installation, VR, performance), and produce a media art exhibition from June 29th to July 5th. This exhibition will be augmented by a series of events around the duo’s artistic practices, such as performances and concerts, talks with local art critics, university researchers, art collectors, as well as film screenings, maximizing the residency’s potential to create a research group around the affordances of the intersection of science, spirituality and technology. 

The main goal is to create a VR experience based on Chongqing, its urban environment, ancient Chinese body practices and philosophy, in the light of the relentless technological evolution which characterizes the 21st Century. Connecting distant areas of experience and fields of knowledge, Intersection of Universes proposes a narration-based meditation focusing on the intersection of technology and spirituality, geology and philosophy, particle physics and anthropology. This narrative framework involves rethinking the documentation tools used in scientific field research (photogrammetric modeling, soundscapes, 360° videos).