Theo Triantafyllidis, the artist behind multiplayer video game Feral Metaverse joins us on the pod to discuss the ideas, mechanics and the experience of the game, how he translates it to exhibition settings and how combining physical and digital media can address questions of embodiment, identity and collaboration in hybrid realities. We talk also about his wider art practice in which he uses various technologies ranging from game engines, VR, to live action role-play in order to create immersive, interactive environments often shaped by absurd, yet also poetic situations. 

This episode is hosted by Tjaša Pogačar and Ondřej Trhoň, sound logo by Oliver Torr, cover visual by Jaka Neon. The episode features sounds and music from Feral Metaverse. 

More about Theo’s practice:

https://slimetech.org/

https://slimetech.org/works/feralmetaverse

Play Feral Metaverse on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3447150/Feral_Metaverse/

Mentioned:

This podcast is supported by the City of Ljubljana and the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia.

Šum x 2025

Curator and writer Nadim Samman talks about his research and curatorial approach, the notion of the Technocene, the esoteric imaginary surrounding contemporary tech, the book and exhibition Poetics of Encryption and, among other things, how their three chapters – Black Site, Black Box, and Black Hole – function as models for where we see ourselves in relation to technology’s encrypted core. 

This episode is hosted by Ondřej Trhoň, edited by Tjaša Pogačar, sound design by Oliver Torr, visual by Jaka Neon. The cover image is based on the work Panorama Cat by Eva & Franco Mattes.

For more:

http://nadimsamman.com

https://www.galerierudolfinum.cz/en/exhibitions/current-exhibitions/poetics-of-encryption/

https://www.hatjecantz.com/products/60035-nadim-samman?srsltid=AfmBOooVJbaIaqfzGE9J7qwQSZ5SOYhDGPLceYVaykyO_WEJik_HstTP

https://tba21.org/rare_earth_en

Find us on https://sum.si

This podcast is supported by the City of Ljubljana and the Ministry of Culture of Slovenia.

Šum x 2025

Lucia Pietroiusti and Lukáš Likavčan discussing rituals of mourning, secular mysticism, relationship between technology and sacred tendencies, role of spirituality in contemporary art, and attuning cultural institutions to the rituals for post-Anthropocene in order to facilitate a shift from 'global' art world to a 'planetary' one. 

The discussion followed Lucia's and Lukaš's keynotes at ARIA World's End Symposium in Ljubljana. Hosted by Tjaša Pogačar.

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ARIA – Algo-Rhythmic Ideation Assembly is a summer school that hybridizes art, education, and theory through immersive (role)play. Each edition features two residencies, a public  symposium and related events, closed-door workshops and also a real-game play created by OMSK Social Club.

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Watch the lectures here: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPCh7GAiUYLu-IhQ4oxWNX890RxqrxkHl⁠

Learn more about 

ARIA: ⁠https://www.sum.si/projects/aria-algo-rhythmic-ideation-assembly⁠

Lucia Pietroiusti: https://luciapietroiusti.earth

Lukáš Likavčan: https://www.likavcan.com

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ARIA was developed and curated by Tjaša Pogačar and Brandon Rosenbluth. Produced by ⁠Projekt Atol Institute⁠ in collaboration with Šum journal (Društvo Galerija Boks). Co-Production: Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, International Centre of Graphic Arts Ljubljana (MGLC) ARIA is part of ⁠More-than-Planet project⁠, co-funded by the European Union as part of the Creative Europe framework and supported by the Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the City of Ljubljana.

This episode brings a discussion with Alice Bucknell, Tom K Kemp and Klara Kofen following their lectures at ARIA's Worlds’ End Symposium.

We talked about the potential of games as simulations to generate novel scenarios and outcomes, ways of avoiding habituated behaviours, the mechanics of non-human gameplay, about mysticism, opera, and language as worldbuilding technology...

Hosted by Tjaša Pogačar and Brandon Rosenbluth.

**

ARIA – Algo-Rhythmic Ideation Assembly is a summer school that hybridizes art, education, and theory through immersive (role)play. 

Each edition features two residencies, a public  symposium and related events, closed-door workshops and also a real-game play created by Omsk Social Club.

_______

Watch the lectures here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPCh7GAiUYLu-IhQ4oxWNX890RxqrxkHl

Learn more about

ARIA: https://www.sum.si/projects/aria-algo-rhythmic-ideation-assembly

Alice Bucknell: https://alicebucknell.com

Klara Kofen: https://klarakofen.cargo.site

Tom K Kemp: https://tomkkemp.com

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In this episode we reconnect with the world of ARIA in anticipation of its upcoming edition and sit down with Omsk Social Club, a sprawling artistic collective operating from between two lived worlds, one of life as we know it and the other of role play as a medium, to talk about their artistic practice, engagement with roleplay and personal take on the methodology as well as the inspirations that went into developing the Worlds’ End Hackathon, a Real Game Play they designed and will facilitate for ARIA this summer. Episode is hosted by Tjaša Pogačar and Brandon Rosenbluth. 

ARIA - Algorithmic Ideation Assembly, is a week-long summer school that unfolds through a fiction-theory narrative to explore new possibilities for our world in a time of a changing planetary ecology. The second edition of ARIA taking place from 17 - 23 August is dedicated to spectrality and the ends of worlds, exploring rituals for mourning and ways of interfacing with the specters of the (deep) past and future haunting our ecologically fragile planet. Find more information about the mentors, speakers and the structure of the programme on the link below. 

The call for participants is open until 26th of May!

https://projekt-atol.si/en/workshop/aria-open-call/

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Learn more about Omsk Social Club:

https://omsksocial.club/

https://www.instagram.com/omsk_social_club/

Follow Šum:

https://www.sum.si/

https://www.instagram.com/sumjournal/

_

ARIA is produced by Projekt Atol Institute in collaboration with Šum journal in the framework of the More-than-Planet project. 

ŠUM x 2024

Cover design: Dorijan Šiško; Jingle: Tisa Troha

Brandon Rosenbluth talks with artist Áron Birtalan about the politics and potentials of roleplay, mystical theology’s embrace of unknowing, attuning to the relational, and a radical submission to the more-than-human.

Learn more:

https://aronbirtalan.net/

https://www.instagram.com/gleemaiden/

Check out also the text Áron contributed for the 21st issue of ŠUM journal: https://www.sum.si/issues/aria-algo-rhythmic-ideation-assembly

In this episode, Jaša Bužinel sat down with Serbian musician Vladimir Lenhart aka Lenhart Tapes whose music has become known as 'ethno noise', or as he puts it – a musical Frankenstein made of different musical traditions, from world and ethno music to industrial and noise. Vladimir recently released the album DENS on the Ljubljana-based label Glitterbeat Records to great international acclaim. Since his early days, he has been a fan of the cassette format and tape manipulation, which represents the basis of his unique musical practice. We discussed his early days, his love for cassettes, contemporary cassette culture, the inception of the Lenhart Tapes project, his latest album Dens and much more.

Find out more:

https://www.lenhartapes.com/

https://lenhartapes.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/lenhartapes/

...

www.sum.si

Two Prague curators and theorists, Tina Poliačková and Noemi Purkrábková, discuss their work, recent trends in contemporary visual art and beyond, the posthumanist and “emo-romantic” turn, online exhibition documentation, offsite shows, the experience of digital media, game principles in exhibition-making, the role of fantasy and fiction in shaping our reality, and the limits of art in enchanting the world differently. This episode is hosted by Tjaša Pogačar, the jingle concocted by Tisa Troha, visual summoned by Dorijan Šiško.

Learn more and follow Noemi and Tina:

https://www.instagram.com/basic_knife_safety/

https://noemipurkrabkova.wixsite.com/noemip

https://www.instagram.com/dirrtina/

https://www.instagram.com/holesovickasachta/

***

Šum x 2023

www.sum.si

In this third ARIA transmission, Michael Marder disentangles the phoenix complex and takes us on a journey through the mechanisms of natural and social reproduction and replication, especially those ingrained in our individual and collective lives. Along the way, we survey and explore the limits, both internal and external, to the seamless phoenix-like reconstitution of the same (organism, psyche, society, environment) across the gap of death, total destruction and devastation.

Michael Marder is an Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. His writings span the fields of ecological theory, phenomenology, and political thought. Find his latest book The Phoenix Complex at MIT press. 

Learn more about Michael Marder’s work: https://www.michaelmarder.org/

*

Transmitted from ARIA public programme in Cukrarna, Ljubljana in August 2023.

ARIA (Algo-Rhythmic Ideation Assembly) is a summer school designed as a role-playing game that takes place through the lens of a fiction-theory narrative to imagine new possibilities and planetary futures in a time of changing ecology. ARIA is developed by Tjaša Pogačar and Brandon Rosenbluth and produced by Projekt Atol in collaboration with Šum journal as part of the More-Than-Planet Project.

Projekt Atol: ⁠https://projekt-atol.si/en/workshop/aria-2023/

More-than-Planet: ⁠https://www.more-than-planet.eu/

Šum: https://www.sum.si/

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The pilot edition of ARIA was made possible by the support of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Public Affairs, City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture, and Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory. 

Co-funded by the European Union as part of the Creative Europe framework. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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ŠUM x 2023

The second transmission from ARIA brings a discussion with Michael Marder, Špela Petrič, Protektorama toxica and Simon Speiser. Hosted by Brandon Rosenbluth, the panel centers around the concept of anthropoforming as proposed by Helen Hester addressing questions of human and non-human co-evolutionary potentialities as directed by human innovation and imagination.

*

Transmitted from ARIA public programme in Cukrarna, Ljubljana in August 2023.

ARIA (Algo-Rhythmic Ideation Assembly) is a summer school designed as a role-playing game which takes place through the lens of a fiction-theory narrative to imagine new possibilities and planetary futures in a time of changing ecology. ARIA is developed by Tjaša Pogačar and Brandon Rosenbluth and produced by Projekt Atol in collaboration with Šum journal as part of the More-Than-Planet Project. 

Projekt Atol: ⁠https://projekt-atol.si/en/workshop/aria-2023/

More-than-Planet: ⁠https://www.more-than-planet.eu/

Šum: https://www.sum.si/

___

The pilot edition of ARIA was made possible by the support of the Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Public Affairs, City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture, and Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory. 

Co-funded by the European Union as part of the Creative Europe framework. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

___

ŠUM x 2023