TRANSLUNAR FORMATIONS

Translunar Formations is the very first exhibition in the world of geo-mapping augmented reality artwork to actual locations on the Moon.

Produced by Madi Piller, Artistic Director of PIX FILM Collective (Toronto) in collaboration with SystemKollectiv (Litto / Daniela Weiss and Jascha Ehrenreich) of The Artificial Museum (Vienna). The show breaks new ground technologically, for artists creating in augmented reality and for audiences to experience this work via AR portals to the Moon. Eleven Canadian artists were commissioned and guided by PIX FILM Collective to create work for Augmented Reality experience responding to the theme: Translunar Formations.

Conceptually, the show asks us to consider our responsibility to Earth's satellite, and our stewardship of the planet we are on, our only home. Canadian Artists were directed to consider the looming UN climate emergency deadline and its recommended actions to support and sustain the environment. As the various nations of Earth explore the Moon's potential for profit through resource extraction and tourism, new moral and legal concerns emerge regarding human presence in space, including satellites, space stations and the autonomy of the Moon itself. Issues of colonialism, exploitation, and our responsibility to the natural world are up for urgent reconsideration. This exhibition invites audiences to travel to the Moon, and contemplate our ancient, yet rapidly changing, relationship to Earth's beloved orbital companion.

A 3D digital image of a marshland cattail has a single stem and leaves. A straight solid copper-coloured stem supports the fuzzy brown cattail flower. The flower resembles a skewered sausage with the stem extending out the top. Three long green narrow leaves are mottled with colourful psychedelic patterns. The leaves point upward with a slight bend near the top. The simple brown root points down, extending from the thick stem. A blue water-like substance droops from the root. [FR] Une image numérique en 3D d’une quenouille des marais possède une seule tige et des feuilles. La tête de la quenouille, brune et duveteuse, est portée par une tige droite et solide de couleur cuivrée. La tête ressemble à une saucisse en brochette dont la tige dépasse le sommet. Trois feuilles vertes, longues et étroites, sont tachetées de motifs psychédéliques colorés. Les feuilles pointent vers le haut en se courbant légèrement près du sommet. La racine brune et simple se dirige vers le bas et offre un sup

Amy Lockhart

Amy Lockhart is a filmmaker, animator and artist. Her animations have screened at festivals internationally, including the British Film Institute, N.Y. Anthology Film Archives, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Carnegie Mellon and International Animation Festival Hiroshima, Japan, and in the AMPASEA archive.

https://amylockhart.ca/

https://www.instagram.com/babyssscrib_dot_com/

Title: Cattail (Quenouille)

To commemorate marshlands destroyed by cities, the artist created a 3D digital cattail, using hand made psychedelic patterns.

Four hard drives are nestled in a garden amid metallic flowers. The colourful rectangular drives have different coloured cases - one orange, one green, and two blue. Reaching over the garden, vine-like tubes connect the intricate metallic flowers with gemstone centres. The hard drives rest in the ground which resembles fluffy white clouds. [FR] Quatre disques durs sont plantés dans un jardin au milieu de fleurs métalliques. Les disques rectangulaires colorés ont des boîtiers de couleurs différentes - un orange, un vert et deux bleus. Des tubes en forme de vigne s’étendent au-dessus du jardin et relient les fleurs métalliques élaborées, dont le centre est constitué de pierres précieuses. Les disques durs reposent sur un sol qui ressemble à de moelleux nuages blancs.

Paloma Dawkins

Paloma Rendón Dawkins is a cartoonist and self-taught animator turned virtual-reality and video-game artist. Dawkin’s games are praised for being digital spaces that celebrate natural life and rhythms and the worlds she creates in her games are spaces that incite creative thinking and wonder.

https://palomadawkins.com/

Title:

Hard Drive Elysium (Disque dur Elysium)

Hard Drive Elysium is a strange and colourful garden where hard-drives of a bygone era go to rest and their knowledge is absorbed by the surrounding bio-digital flora. Data travels through tubes connecting a mycelial network of surveillance flowers. The scene evokes a distant future where plants triumph.

In an interactive 3D image, a tangled chrome structure emerges from a hole in the ground. The smooth alien-like metal form gleams with tinges of pink and purple. Pink flora sprouts across the top of the twisting and turning structure. Under the form are remnants of an old highway. Upon closer inspection, vehicles and roads with barriers peek out. Pink flowers and foliage sprout on the sections of forgotten highways that lead nowhere. [FR] Dans une image 3D interactive, une structure chromée et enchevêtrée émerge d’un trou dans le sol. La forme métallique lisse, à l’image d’un objet extraterrestre, luit avec des teintes de rose et de mauve. Une végétation rose pousse au sommet de la structure qui tourne et s’enroule. Sous la forme se trouvent les vestiges d’une ancienne autoroute. En y regardant de plus près, on voit des véhicules et des routes avec des barrières. Des fleurs et du feuillage roses poussent sur les tronçons d’autoroutes oubliées qui ne mènent nulle part.

Brandon Blommaert

Originally from Edmonton, Brandon got his BFA from Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary. He founded Western Canada's largest animation festival (GIRAF). His involvement in the National Film Board's Hothouse program spurred a move to Montreal, Quebec, where he continues to practice animation.

http://brandonblommaert.com/

https://www.instagram.com/brandon_blommaert/

Title:

highway/tumor (Autoroute et tumeur)

An unused highway is buried underground, flora and fauna grow on its surface. A larger, more alien form emerges, impregnating the world with its glossy digital essence. highway/tumor imagines a world where humanity has moved on from the drudgery of urban sprawl into a new realm of tropical alien.

A 3D drama where space is black and lunar dust is grey. A girl, a boy and an alien leap from their home planets and land on the day-glow wreck of a spaceship on the moon. They wear brightly-striped, lycra exercise ensembles, which are a complete contrast to the moon. They find a baby and a dog; they all wear bubble space helmets in different bright colours - pink, blue, green and yellow. The alien doesn’t wear a helmet. They get to know each other by touching; the boy pats the dog; the alien catches the baby as she floats by; the girl caresses the baby. They celebrate being young, alive and together by doing cartwheels and head spins and blowing kisses. [FR] Un drame en 3D où l’espace est noir et la poussière lunaire est grise. Une fille, un garçon et un extraterrestre quittent leur planète respective et atterrissent sur l’épave d’un vaisseau spatial sur la lune, illuminée par le soleil. Les trois portent des tenues de sport en lycra à rayures vives, qui contrastent fortement avec la

Libby Hague

Libby Hague, RCA, BFA (Hon.), is an artist whose curiosity informs her hybrid practice. Recent exhibitions include My Story of Sublimation, SNAP Gallery; Artist’s Book Biennale, Bibliotheca Alexandrina; On this Wondrous Sea, Karachi Biennale, Pakistan; International Print Triennial, Krakow, Poland.

www.libbyhague.com

Instagram @libby_hague

Title: Touch Me (Touche moi)

Five individuals, a girl, a boy, an alien, a baby and a dog are sent into space to find new worlds. They left their imperilled planets and landed on the moon. All refugees now, but ready to begin again, they bring a sense of the wonder of life on earth and find, not only a new world, but each other.

A large translucent egg rests in a nest just big enough to contain it. Inside the egg, a mosquito is poised to bite. The realistic mosquito has a slim segmented body, wings and a needle-like stinger for its mouth. The brown nest resembles a bird’s nest with a neat arrangement of sticks, twigs and leaves. [FR] Un énorme œuf translucide repose dans un nid juste assez grand pour le contenir. À l’intérieur de l’œuf, un moustique est prêt à piquer. Le moustique réaliste a un corps mince et segmenté, des ailes et un dard en forme d’aiguille en guise de bouche. Le nid brun ressemble à celui d’un oiseau, avec des branches, des brindilles et des feuilles soigneusement disposées.

karen darricades

karen darricades is a community-engaged new media artist reflecting stories along a spectrum of mixed-media installations to mixed reality experiences. Her works explore power dynamics, cultural narratives, human costuming, sentience and non-human intelligence.

https://www.karendarricades.com

@nevergalready

Ben McCarthy

Ben McCarthy is an electronic musician and sound artist from Toronto, Canada. Taking found sound and audio documentary as his material, his compositions and installations raise questions about the social, technological and economic conditions that produce the listening subject.

Instagram

@paleeyesmusic

Title: Nest Egg (L’Œuf et le nid)

Nest Egg looks at human technologies developed by observing the natural world (e.g. mosquitos and hypodermic needles) and how this practice is worth protecting and sharing with interplanetary lifeforms. It also warns that the human animal is a bloodsucking extractor of resources wherever it roams.

$In 3D, a massive piece of ore is shattered into at least twelve pieces of varying sizes. Shadows play over the ore’s craggy grey surface. The heavy chunk of ore resembles a large broken rock. [FR] En 3D, un énorme morceau de minerai est fractionné en au moins douze morceaux de tailles différentes. Des ombres se dessinent sur la surface grise et crevassée du minerai. Le lourd morceau de minerai ressemble à une grosse roche ayant volé en éclats.$

Sébastien Pitt

Sébastien Pitt is an independent digital artist supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and CALQ. He has exhibited at [SAT] and is an 0xSOCIETY™ Grantee. His practice encompasses interactive installation, audiovisual performance, prints, custom metaverse space, crypto-art and augmented reality.

https://sebastienpitt.com/

https://www.instagram.com/sebastien.pitt/

Title:

Faire de l’espace (Making Space)

Faire de l’espace (Making space) is a digital megalith that substantiates coveted ore and rare earth elements found in our finite concrete world. The piece addresses the underlying technological shortages that our world faces in rendering the limitless content creation of an ever-growing metaverse.

In a looping 3D animation, a bluish-green figure stands with one hand on its hip holding up a pink tulip. The figure’s bare skin resembles the texture of a helium balloon. It has wide eyes with red pupils and a pink toothy grin. Atop the figure’s head are rounded lumps, similar to bunny ears; one tall and one shorter. Offering the flower, the figure stretches up and morphs through various distorted forms as the tulip droops and dies. [FR] Dans une animation 3D en boucle, un personnage bleu vert se tient debout avec une tulipe rose dans une main, l’autre main posée sur sa hanche. La peau nue du personnage ressemble à la texture d’un ballon gonflé à l’hélium. Il a de grands yeux avec des pupilles rouges et un sourire inversé rose laissant paraître quelques dents inférieures. Au sommet de la tête de la figurine se trouvent deux bosses arrondies, semblables à des oreilles de lapin ; l’une est longue et l’autre, courte. Le personnage offre la fleur, s’étire et se transforme en diverses form

Phoebe Parsons

Phoebe Parsons is a director and animator from the unceded indigenous land known as Vancouver, B.C. Since receiving a Bachelor of Media Arts from Emily Carr University in 2010, she has been building a repertoire of experimental animations and films using techniques ranging from hand painted cel animations to 3d modelling.

https://phoebeparsons.com/

@phoebes__room

Title:

Going Through Changes (Vivre les changements)

Whether we are living on Earth or in space the call for community and care reigns supreme. What decisions are we making to harmonize with each other and with nature? Can we be held accountable for our actions? What. Are. We. Doing?

$In 3D, a crystalline formation hovers above the moon’s surface. Cubes populate the surface of the geometric formation in a fractal pattern. Each cube’s face has a solid colour: yellow, red, purple, green, light blue or dark blue. Some areas on the formation are bare and grey. [FR] En 3D, une structure cristalline plane au-dessus de la surface de la lune. Des cubes recouvrent la surface de la structure géométrique selon un modèle fractal. La face de chaque cube est de couleur unie : jaune, rouge, mauve, vert, bleu clair ou bleu foncé. Certaines sections de la structure sont dénudées et grises.$

Barry Doupé

Barry Doupé (b. 1982 Victoria, BC) is a Vancouver based artist working with computer animation. His films use imagery and language derived from the subconscious through writing exercises and automatic drawing. His characters are often thwarted, resulting in comic, violent and poetic spectacles.

http://www.barrydoupe.ca/

@barrydoupe1000

Title:

Moon Crystal (Cristal de lune)

A crystaline Formation hovers above the moon's surface. Geometric fractals extend from the structure, symbolizing human exploration and the drive to understand the unknown.

Fratal patterns have a child-parent relationship, which parallels our view of the solar system as a familial configuration.

In a 3D image, two female stone figures perch on a large rock on a brown sand shore. The figures sit casually beside each other, one younger and one older. Bathed in moonlight, they are backed by two videos of reflected moonlight that resemble a starry sky. [FR] Dans une image en 3D, deux statuettes de femmes en pierre sont perchées sur un gros rocher sur un rivage de sable brun. Les deux femmes, l’une plus jeune et l’autre plus âgée, se font dos l’une à l’autre et sont assises de manière décontractée, légèrement séparées. Baignées par le clair de lune, un ciel étoilé se dresse derrière elle.

Gabriel Esteban Molina

Gabriel Esteban Molina is an artist from amiskwaciwaskahican (Edmonton). He has exhibited at Latitude 53 and the Art Gallery of Alberta, and internationally in Iceland, Italy, and the UK. His experimental lens-based practice explores how technology affects perception and interaction with the world.

https://www.gabrielestebanmolina.com/

https://instagram.com/gabrielestebanmolina/

Title: Full Moonlight Shrine (Sanctuaire au clair de pleine lune)

A shrine of moonlight is created from 3D scans and video. Both videos, Bijoux (2010) and Moonlight (2022) capture moonlight and were shot in Canada and Chile respectively. The two figures are my
Chilean mother and my Canadian fiance, and the work reflects on the important dualities in my life.

In a 3D image, a passageway floats on the side of a narrow street near a gym, hotel and shops. Inside the passage, a figure twirls a flag on the surface of the moon. A collage of images adorns the flag. The collage depicts photographs of people in peril juxtaposed with images of nature. The same collage is in the background surrounded by discarded segments of roller coaster track. Above the long-haired flag-twirler, a superimposed hand flips through sticky notes with scrawled words including Transport, Perception, Speculation, and Interrelation. [FR] Dans une image en 3D, un couloir flotte en bordure d’une rue étroite, à proximité d’un gymnase, d’un hôtel et de magasins. À l’intérieur du passage, une personne fait tournoyer un drapeau sur la surface de la lune. Un collage d’images orne le drapeau. Le collage représente des photographies de personnes en danger juxtaposées à des images de la nature. Le même collage se trouve en arrière-plan, entouré de segments de rails de montagnes r

Freya Björg Olafson & Luke Nickel

Freya Björg Olafson is a Winnipeg-based intermedia artist who works with video, audio, animation, motion capture, XR, painting, and performance. Olafson’s work has been performed and exhibited internationally, and she received the 2020 Sobey Longlist award.

Luke Nickel is an audio visual artist, virtual roller coaster designer, and independent researcher with a PhD from Bath Spa University in the UK.

https://www.freyaolafson.com/

@freyaolafson

https://twitter.com/FreyaOlafson

https://www.facebook.com/freya.olafson.5

https://lukenickel.com/

https://www.instagram.com/postyork

https://www.facebook.com/lukejnickel

https://twitter.com/lukejnickel

Title:

Passages Into A Weightless Medium

(Passages en apesanteur)

This artwork considers flags as symbols—both on earth and the moon—and documents transmissions between the artists over a year of research. 2D imagery, 3D models and AI-collaborative sound depict ghostly dualities: moon/earth, nature/industry, bodies/avatars, digital/real, sculpture/debris

Patrick Harrop

Patrick Harrop is a multimedia and electronic artist, licensed architect and a professor of architecture at

Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. He works in a variety of mediums, including installation, constructions, light, sound, video art and traditional

and hybrid drawing.

@ocular.witness

Title: Luna Luna

The lunar physiography occupies a place of geological and cultural reflection. We regard this seemingly generic and neutral topography as being inherently devoid of life, subsistence and tangible cultural artifacts. Yet this pockmarked ball of geological dust, is vibrantly inhabited by our historical and contemporary cultural imagination manifest in science, engineering, literature, song and mythology. Its seemingly empty troposphere is permeated by a vast tableau of immaterial content from data science to mythology. Luna luna is an ongoing research-creation investigation seeking a cartography of these phenomena.

OUR TEAM

Nick Fox-Gieg is an experimental animator in Toronto. His awards include a 2017 Engadget Alternate Realities grant, Eyebeam and Fulbright Fellowships, and the jury prize for Best Animated Short at SXSW 2010; his videos have also been shown at the OIAF, Rotterdam, and TIFF festivals, at the Centre Pompidou, and on CBC TV. His XR work includes projects for the Verizon 5G EdTech Challenge, NYT T Brand Studio, the University of Waterloo, Google Creative Lab, and Framestore; his art practice has been supported by grants from Bravo!FACT, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the arts councils of Ontario, Pennsylvania, Toronto, and West Virginia. Fox-Gieg holds an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.

https://fox-gieg.com/

Jeff Tran
Is a Vietnamese Canadian multimedia artist from Toronto. He works in computer animation as a storyboard, 3d layout and rigging artist. His short films received support from OAC, Canada Council and NFB and has screened worldwide at the New York, London, San Diego film festivals.

www.instagram.com/jamuckers

Production Team

Project Curation and Direction in Toronto, Canada

Madi Piller @madipiller, @pixfilmgallery

SystemKollektiv (Litto and Jascha) in Vienna, Austria

@systemkollectiv

@ms.Litto

@jaschaehrenreich

Project Coordinator - Hope Peterson @hopepeterson_art

Technical Support Toronto -

Jeff Tran @jamuckers and Nick Fox-Gieg @n1ckfg

Technical Support Vienna - The System kollective: Litto/Daniela Weiss (Artistic Director) and Jascha Ehrenreich (Programmer)