36Q˚ (“three hundred sixty”) presents scenography as a place where technology and art come together to create a one-of-a-kind experience. Curators Markéta Fantová and Jan K. Rolník have transformed the entire Small Sports Hall into an interactive sensory environment where various fields get to express themselves: lighting design, video projections, sound design, virtual reality, tactile design, and creative coding. The project, which is the result of intensive collaboration, brings together experienced artists with beginning designers with the goal of engaging in collective creative work. The team of artists and curators focused on experimenting with the changing boundary between the “intangible” (or “virtual”) world and the “real” one. At the heart of 36Q° is the immersive installation Blue Hour, which was produced under the guidance of audiovisual artist Romain Tardy. Visitors may remember him from last year’s Signal Festival, when he created an installation that brought to life the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Karlín.
“Blue Hour is the time of day just before dusk, when the sky grows gray and everything around usually acquires a blue color. Figuratively speaking, the title could also refer to the unclear boundary between two phenomena or worlds: day and night, virtual and real, physical and digital. In the broader sense of the word, this ‘transitional state’ should tell us about today’s era, which finds itself on the cusp between the pre-digital and post-digital era and at the beginning of online interconnectedness,” explain the project’s artistic leader Romain Tardy. Blue Hour was created by a team of six working groups headed by: Pavla Beranová (lighting design), Robert Kaplowitz (sound design), Tereza Stehlíková (sensory environments), Shannon Harvey (systems integration), John Richards (experimental sound), and Paul Cegys and Joris Weijdom (virtual reality).
36Q˚ was made possible thanks to material support from Robe and other technology and development partners who have succeeded in pushing the boundaries of their field.
