DIGITAL CLIMATE
The virtual world of thoughts: Artist Kristýna Sidlárová presents her project Digital Climate
Words by Veronika Soukupová
Kristýna Sidlárová is a visual artist and graphic designer, working under the pseudonym of sida100. She is a member of the global community, DIGI-GXL, which brings together women, trans and non-binary people, specialising mainly in 3D design and animation. Her own work revolves around the conflict between material and virtual worlds, and is dominated primarily by the medium of 3D computer graphics; moving between different media, such as moving image, graphic design, sculpture, installations, photography and augmented reality. Recently she has been working on her Digital Climate project, which she introduces to the readers of Novy Zine.
Words by Veronika Soukupová
Courtesy of KRISTÝNA SIDLAROVÁ
How did the Digital Climate project come about?
Digital Climate is my long-term project, created sometime in early 2019. One of the main motivations behind it was to create a stable project, which I can keep returning to, and pour my thoughts into, storing them via visual outcomes.
How would you describe the project?
Virtual objects realised through 3D softwares make up the core of the project, which allowed me to remove limits posed by the physical world. I would describe Digital Climate as a virtual environment, compassed by digital means, reflecting my thought processes throughout the creative process. Its aim isn’t to foreshadow the future. It creates a new dimension, which coexists with our physical reality and draws on individual elements from it.
What do these objects express?
My main focus is on the design of these objects. The design process reflects my views on various topics, which are significant to me, at the moment of creation, and which I try to resolve within myself, subconsciously or perhaps subliminally; I draw inspiration from my subjective perception of the world around me. I try to express this using different means than just verbalisation alone. The creative process is an instrument of ventilation, the search for and the organisation of ideas. The result is very personal, but not necessarily autobiographical. Each resulting entity carries a different message - and therefore the objects are not uniform in meaning. Sometimes I discover a meaning, of which I wasn’t aware at the time, only in retrospect.
Courtesy of KRISTÝNA SIDLAROVÁ
The format of the final presentation varies, it includes moving image, face filters, static renders and other forms of expression. The 3D objects themselves are, however, quite abstract and so they are open to various interpretations. I aim to allow for different possibilities of understanding to be available to the viewer. Together with the objects, I am presenting a visual essay (which you’ll find on the following pages of the zine), outlining possible interpretations. In a similar manner, I have chosen the name of each of the objects and their specific form of presentation.
Do you provide the viewer with any other guidelines for interpretation, for instance an accompanying text?
I don’t describe the objects with annotations. I would like for the viewer to experience something similar to what I was experiencing while I was creating the objects, whilst also bringing their own life experiences into their own interpretations. Our mind draws on its own experiences related to specific associations when confronted with visual stimuli. A different experience of the world can lead to varying interpretations.
Follow Kristyna Sidlarova and the development of Digital Climate on the Instagram @sida100.
See the Czech version of this article together with visual artworks in NOVY ZINE, issue 1.