Images courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted
Soft rose palm trees, bright crystal sculptures, and floating Baroque sofas—the humid pink environment created by Baron Baron for their new spherical video disputes its own validity while addressing the state of immersive technologies.Baron Baron is a creative duo comprising Johann Baron Lanteigne and Ganesh Baron Aloir. Creating virtual environments in the aesthetic of web-punk and video games, the artists have developed "Ludibrium" as their first collaborative piece.
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Set to the music of Clift N. Anthony, a.k.a., Bored Lord, "Ludibrium" creates a feeling of uneasiness by guiding you through a dense, hermetic environment. The video puts the viewer on a rollercoaster ride into a realm absent of all life. “The viewer is confronted with the contrast between the object’s desires to justify their role and their uselessness,” as Baron Baron tells The Creators Project.
“We carelessly dove into risks and chaos as a gestural painter would treat it’s canvas. This was possible through the use of our own custom animation tools created within TouchDesigner, a real time interactive multimedia platform,” the artists say.Technologically speaking, the duo explores the various ways of entry into virtual reality: via the flat rectangular video format or spherical video. In addition to the phantasmagoric environments that Baron Baron creates, both artists make work on their own. Ganesh Baron works with virtual reality mazes that task users with escaping absurd, metaphysical environments by interacting with different objects around them. “With different randomization techniques I aim to create an evolutive experience that can be different every time you experience it,” Ganesh Baron Aloir says.In the meantime, Johann Baron Lanteigne’s works are technological explorations into the relationship between viewers and spherical surround-screens. “Data glitching, applied to different levels within the image, allows me to transition from the depth of a virtual camera documenting my environment to the flatness of the physical screen I work with,” he reveals.
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