CLON & NWRMNTC, PRESENTING META: A PARADOX BETWEEN TWO REALITIES
A hybrid world formed by a virtual and a physical space, that challenges the viewer through the simulation of a video game. This is META, a new project by CLON and NWRMNTC that, through live electronic music and sci-fi visuals, that transport you to another world. We talk to CLON’s Estela Oliva and NWRMNTC’s Ana Quiroga about this immersive experience that is presented in this year’s edition of Barcelona’s MIRA Festival: if you want to experience this dystopian yet at the same time utopian universe, you know where to go.
Estela, you work as an artist through CLON, you are a curator and creative director who works closely with museums and art institutions and director of your own studio Digital & Nomad. But how would you define yourself first and foremost?
In my work, I perform different roles, depending on the type of project. All these roles are equally important, and they become more prominent depending on the time and the type of goal. At the moment, I am focusing on digital projects through my studio Digital & Nomad, we are working a lot in immersive experiences with virtual reality. I am also enjoying the work very much as CLON, where I have found a formula to explore current interests and desires.
I’ve read that you studied translation and interpreting at university. How did you become so invested in the digital world in the first place? And what made you change fields?
I wasn’t able to choose the degree I wanted (film studies) because I didn’t have the resources. So, I studied a degree that allowed me to move out to London. Once I was in London, I started a career in the digital space. My first job was in the video games sector and after that I worked extensively in internet companies and freelancing. I don’t believe studying a certain degree defines who you can be. A degree means only a few years of your life, especially years of quick development and rapid changes. It’s amazing to acquire a level of knowledge in a specific subject but to me the way to learn a field is by doing it. Of course, doing so also takes dedication to research and do an in-depth study before it can be done well. I think everyone should be free to define their work career freely as they choose, through a combination of interests, dedication, skills and experience. However, I feel that this kind of non-linear career path is not yet accepted, especially in Spain. The education system is very rigid in Spain, for example you can’t choose math and art in the same degree while I am good at both. In London and the UK, on the other hand, I think there is more flexibility to craft your own career path as you want. I feel very aligned with this mentality and with the idea to continue reinventing myself as I go along.
I believe that your project, CLON is only over two years old. How did it come about?
CLON is a project that I have been building in my spare time for years. I never had enough time to dedicate to it, but finally in 2017 I was doing a residency at Somerset House Studios in London and I was able to spend time on it. I got to develop the concept and it was launched as a concept film: Janmar B17. In CLON, I am exploring speculative sci-fi narratives presented as artistic interventions such as film, installation and performance.
Knowing that you have a business perspective, as you worked for a major company like Google and have an extensive background in brand consultancy, what made you want to focus on more artistic ventures like CLON? What is your objective with this kind of project?
Working in the digital sector for companies and brands allows me to sustain my life. It can be fun but also very demanding. I have also developed artistic work as a creative director working in my own projects as well as for clients for the last 12 years. Developing CLON has been a natural evolution, rather than a sudden change. Since I was a kid, I have always been making art in my spare time, I do photography and I also DJ, ultimately, I would also like to make films. CLON is an exploration of how I see the world we live in, through simulation and speculative scenarios. I don’t have a particular goal as such, but to be able to express what is important to me, and to challenge myself by doing it, and to share it with other people so it can also challenge them.
Ana, first things first. You come from a tiny town in Asturias (Spain) and you decided from a young age to devote yourself to music, how come? When and why did you decide this was it for you?
I was born and raised in Mieres, a small culturally active town. I grew up surrounded by music, mainly thanks to my dad who is a big fan of music and he used to have a jazz radio program and also thanks to my friends with whom I used to share and exchange lots of music with. At home we had always had instruments (guitars, bass guitars, keyboards, drums…) and we loved to do jams with my dad and his friends but I never wanted to study music because I thought it was too academic and demanding. So, during my teenage years I started to play a bit the guitar and the bass on my own, dreaming of having a band one day but just daydreaming. I would never have imagined what happened a few years later!
You used to be involved in a duo called LCC, which released two albums but also designed and produced sound for other audiovisual shows, performances, films etc. You had a great run, of 8 years, how and why did this end? Did it just happen organically?
LCC was almost like a live project. We started from scratch and we created something amazing without any resources but with infinite passion. I’m very proud of what we did over all those years. We played in amazing festivals and collaborated in great projects and we even sent our music to space! (With the Sonar Calling). But after 8 years, we decided it was time to explore other paths separately.
I believe that NWRMNTC is your first solo project, why did you decide to embark on this on your own?
NWRMNTC is my first solo project as a music producer but I was already DJing alone under the alias of Cecile Ann before I started LCC. Like everything I do in my life, the project of NWRMNTC was just organically. I wanted to create music from a more individual and intimate perspective, exploring new ways of music storytelling and multimedia practices through mystic and experimental cinematic soundscapes. Inspired by the uncanny, the rituals and the human connections.
Also, as you’ve just stated, you’ve been involved in the music industry for many year, you’re used to either playing for alt-rock or even pop bands and were a club DJ who used to play a lot of rock music. What made you want to change genres? Do you find that you have more freedom making electronic music with NWRMNTC?
When I started at university, I put up some posters saying ‘bass player is looking for a band’ with the Nirvana’s smiley face on it. Now I look back and I think that’s one of the cutest things I’ve done in my life. That’s how I started playing live and feeling that was for me. At that time, although I was already listening to electronic music, rock was my passion. I played in a few bands and then I started DJing in pubs and clubs, mixing alternative rock and electronica. During that time, I proposed to some friends to create a electro-punk-riot-grrrls band that never happened but both of us were up for creating something which ended up becoming LCC!
When we created LCC nothing was planned. Neither of us studied music, so we started to experiment with everything we had around, including a computer with the Reason software. Basically, in that process I discovered that electronic music was what I was looking for. Precisely for what you have mentioned in the question: freedom. Freedom for mixing all the influences, freedom of experimenting with sound, instruments, software, hardware... Following my instinct and my ears, not just the norm. Since then, my story with electronic music has been a constant crush, as a producer but also as a listener.
Let’s talk about your upcoming MIRA Festival performance titled META. Estela, could you tell us a bit about what we can expect from it?
META is a real time game simulation with a live soundtrack. The work invites the audience to explore a series of utopian and dystopian scenes of the CLON world. The performance is experienced in first person view and creates a hybrid space in which the physical place where the audience are located connects with the virtual space, generating a sort of paradox between the two realities. Anyone coming to the show can expect to be immersed in the virtual scenes and the music played. The project brings together the soundtrack of NWRMNTC with a set of interactive 3D scenarios and the speculative story of CLON.
What made you want to work with each other in the first place? Why did you want to integrate the live music element and in which ways does the experience change from event to event?
I was a fan of Ana’s music since a few years back. We did a residency together in Iceland where we found many connections and common interests. Shortly after, we started collaborating. I find that her music really fits with my vision of the CLON world, integrating cinematic ambiences and sci-fi sounds which come from another world. She has made the sound design for the CLON concept film, my VR experience (TSDOMS) and finally the soundtrack for META. In the case of META, the visual content is what drives the narrative and the story, through the game. In every performance there is a level of customisation of the content, from custom 3D models to live interactions while the music is scored live. Having live music is key to the performance, as it sets the moods and pushes the work into deep emotions.
Why did you feel the need to create a simulation of a video game for this particular performance? What can the audience learn or take from a scenario like this?
The game is the central part of the work and the performance a way of presenting it. I was looking to create a performance where I could present “worlds” as I had imagined and that would put the audience at the centre, so the game simulation can achieve these goals. The audience and the artists are exploring the game together, transported into simulations which aim to question the world we live in, and how it is constructed. Through the music, the visual and the set design we hope to transmit emotions and thoughts.
As the META performance is viewed in the first person, do you feel that this will be more of an individual experience for the viewer? Or perhaps you find that it will be sort of a collective, ritualistic one? Or a mixture of both, in a sense?
The experience is both individual and collective, I am interested in the personal interpretation and also in how the audience as a group can also be part of the performance. In this sense, I see it like a ritual, where you give and take both with yourself and with others.
When you create such interactive performances like META in different types of environments, from museums to clubs or music festivals, in which ways does the audience react differently?
The way the work is perceived changes dramatically depending on the audience and how engaged they are with the work through the presentation. Having a dedicated performance space to present is important for us, in a context where people can focus on the piece, it requires attention, kind of like being in the cinema. Also, the time of the day can affect the experience. Recently we have been touring META in Latin America and we have seen very different reactions from audiences, from people who are very quiet and introspective, to others that really engage loudly and are outspoken about our work. In Argentina I was very touched that the audience were very engaged, loving and thankful that we had played there. It was emotional.
What other types of projects have you not explored yet and would be excited to participate in? Could you also tell us what other upcoming projects you’re involved in?
I am looking into developing META for the full dome, and to develop the work as a video game to be released in the near future. I have no dates yet for this release. I am also looking to develop more hybrid installation projects with CLON where I mix virtual and physical spaces. Aside from this, I am also working in virtual reality and other immersive experiences through my studio Digital & Nomad.
In much of your work, you explore the different ways in which Artificial Intelligence is progressing and what this could potentially mean for our existence, as humans. Should we be scared of the future?
The future worries me, but not because of technology, I am worried about people and how we might be using technology for which end. There is a current tension between people who are building an advanced, inclusive and fair society and other groups who are looking for power, domination and control. Depending on who makes and owns the technology the result might be one or another.
