Fear of death is something that all living beings have in common. Perhaps, it is the biggest and most complicated fear of all. Most people spend their lifetime trying to manage and in many cases ignore the fear of the unknown and nonexistence Even though it causes bad emotions that we actively try to avoid, this fear has been a driving force behind a vast number of monumental cultural achievements. Individuals who were brave enough to embrace this fear were those whose creativity gave humanity innovations in the fields of medicine, religion, and art.
Imagine what else could be gained if we tapped into that fear more intensely.
The moment of death is an interactive installation that can help us with a closer understanding of the process of death-related fear. It brings a glimpse into the unknown world - a live sensory experience of material death - gathered real time from a decomposing corpse with the use of E.R.O.S. (an intelligent environmental probe developed at the UR Institute). Transferring the material data to digital data, physical death can be streamed to The moment of death chamber, where it will again be materialized and give the user a sensory experience of death. Tapping into all human senses, the chamber will provide the user with a moment in which one cannot distance oneself from the closest possible encounter with death.
What effect will this experience have on the user? How will this perception affect the user? Will the fear eventually be productive, or it will remain just a fear? These are all the important questions that need answers. Our plan is to find out some of the answers, by conducting forensic and behavioral research, with the help of our installation.
collaborators on technical production: UR institute team: Lovro Dujnić, Dajgoro Labinac, Filip Kovačić Popov & Darko Vaupotić
production: KONTEJNER (DIY_ARTLAB)
Gjino Šutić (HR)
Gjino Šutić is a biotechnologist, medicinal chemist, postmodern new media artist, biohacker, innovator, and educator. He is the founder and director of the Universal Research Institute (UR Institute, HR) since 2013, and the founder and director of the company Gen0 Industries d.o.o. – for the development and production of innovative technologies since 2014. He is also the president of the Association of Innovators of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, Croatia since 2020. Šutić works as a multidisciplinary researcher and producer of projects in the fields of experimental biotechnology, hybrid and biological art, electronics, biological and chemical engineering, often promoting DIY innovative practices. Recent achievements include the production of the EU projects Dubrovnik Postmodern (VR culture and art), STARTS4Water (art and new technologies in water conservation), and a gold medal at the ARCA 2022 innovation fair for a synthetic molecule with potential pharmaceutical use developed in silico using chemoinformatic and VR tools.
ur-institute.org
Tanja Minarik (HR)
Tanja Minarik (HR) is an artist working in the field of video art, A/V performances and interactive, immersive environments. Her work predominantly deals with data, biopolitics and technology. She holds a BA in Film and Video from the Academy of Fine Arts in Split, Croatia, and an MA in New Media Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia.She is a part of the queerANarchive collective and the UR Institute.She has exhibited and performed at solo and group exhibitions in galleries and festivals such as: Dreiviertel, Bern, Switzerland; Athens Museum Of Queer Arts (AMOQA), Athens, Greece; Touch Me Festival, Zagreb, Croatia; Roma Independent Film Festival, Roma, Italy; CineFest, Hungary; Europavox Festival, Clermont Ferrand, France; FemiNiš, Niš, Serbia; Perforacije, Zagreb, Croatia; MENT, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Festival of Mediterranean Film, Split, Croatia; PitchWise Festival, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina etc.
