Draft:Keiken

Keiken
Keiken is an artist collective.

The collective was founded by Tanya Cruz, Hana Omori and Isabel Ramos in 2015, who were studying Fine Art at Falmouth University in Cornwall, UK at the time.

The term Keiken comes from the Japanese word for experience (経験) as the lived experience is a central idea in their collective creative practice.

Keiken are winners of the Chanel Next Prize and are artists in residence at Somerset House, London. They are based between London, UK and Berlin, Germany.

Practice
Working primarily in a gaming engine, Keiken build worlds and develop elaborate narratives that examine consciousness and its potential applications and future development.

The collective designs bespoke embodiment technologies that accompany their practice, such as the haptic wearable womb which acts as a meditative device for the wearer. They are also developing techniques and technologies that improve gameplay experience. As Hana Omori put it, “''We have created our own dynamic camera system where you just seamlessly flow between gameplay and cutscenes. But you don't get any motion sickness. So a huge audience could watch it as if it's a film, whilst also playing it as a game''.”

Collaboration
Keiken have collaborated with musicians and artists including wavesovspace, Mati Bratkowski, Dave Norton (Limbo Tech), 00 Zhang, George Jasper Stone, Sakeema Crook, Suzannah Pettigrew, Gabriel Massan, Clifford Sage, Sophie Mars and AGF Hydra.

Notable Works
Feel My Metaverse (2019)

Set in an imagined future, Feel My Metaverse (2019) is a CGI film built in a gaming engine. The work examines the disconnection of monopolising desires of corporate and futurist visions in relation to inequality and climate crisis. The work regards technology as an emancipatory tool, deconstructing physical limitations through sensory understanding and elevating diverse voices.

Feel My Metaverse was made in collaboration with CGI artist George Jasper. It was Keiken’s first venture in creating a cinematic film.

The work has been exhibited at Jerwood Arts, London (2019); ICA London, (2019); Transmediale, HKW, Berlin (2020); Frankfurter Kunstverein (2020).

Wisdoms for Love 3.0 (2021)

Wisdoms for Love 3.0 (2021) is a decision-making game that invites the player to decide their own fate. The game explores the bubbled-up feelings, collective consciousness and belief systems of the contemporary moment. It looks at the desire for change and the challenges we are facing as we move towards a more equal, decentralised future. In the game, wisdom is seen as a tool of personal growth, but it also functions as a form of currency, applicable to the blockchain and integrated into future Web 3.0 technologies.

The game was presented at the 2nd Thailand Biennale, curated by Yuko Hasagawa, as an interactive multimedia, site-specific installation including a fibreglass sculpture (2021).

Player of Cosmic Realms (2022)

Through CGI and film, the interactive installation Player of Cosmic Realms (2022) imagines the future of gaming environments and human relationships. Player of Cosmic Realms features two immersive works: Bet(a) Bodies, a wearable haptic womb with sound and The Life Game, an interactive CGI film series.

The installation was first presented at Aspex in Portsmouth.

Player of Cosmic Realms was also included in the exhibition Among the Machines at the Zabludowicz Collection (2022) and at WORLDBUILDING: GAMING AND ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE at The Julia Stoschek Collection (2022), curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

Morphogenic Angels (2023-ongoing)

The prototype of this game was commissioned and supported by CO Digital in Berlin, the film of the demo of the game commissioned by Somerset House and released on Channel, and Chapter 1 was commissioned and produced by HAU Hebbel Am Ufer and premiered in 2023. Morphogenic Angels was also presented and translated into Japanese for the group show DXP (Digital Transformation Planet): Towards the Next Interface at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan.

Spirit Systems of Soft Knowing ༊*·˚ (2024)

Following from Morphogenic Angels is the work Spirit Systems of Soft Knowing ༊*·˚, presented at Amos Rex in Helsinki (2024).

The collective sees the wearable wombs that are used as part of the installation as tools of consciousness, enabling us to generate empathetic connections with the unknown and expand the limitations of our perceived reality.

Spirit Systems of Soft Knowing ༊*·˚ is inspired by the research of neuroscientist Paul Bach-y-Rita, who introduced the concept of sensory substitution. . Keiken use his research to investigate and present ways of using technology to create and apply wearable technologies that can in turn amplify experience as we know it.

Awards and Residencies
Keiken are a winner of the inaugural Chanel Next Prize (2022).

They received an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica 2022 for Computer Animation.

They are artists in residence at Somerset House Studios (2022-ongoing).

Exhibitions
Spirit Systems of Soft Knowing ༊*·˚, I Feel, For Now, 2024, Amos Rex, Helsinki (FI)

Virtual Beauty, 2024, HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste), Basel (CH)

Choose your Player. Gaming from Dice to Pixel, 2024, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen (DE)

DXP (Digital Transformation Planet): Towards the Next Interface, 2023-24, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (JP)

Connecting, 2023, KANAL - Centre Pompidou, Brussels (BE)

Helsinki Biennial, Ángel Yōkai Atā, 2023, Helsinki (FI)

Morphogenic Angels, Film Commission, 2023, Somerset House, London (UK)

Morphogenic Angels, 2023, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin (DE)

Art & Tech Festival: The Fable of Net in Earth, 2022, ARKO, Seoul (KR)

WORLDBUILDING: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2022, Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf (DE)

Plásmata: Bodies, Dreams, and Data, 2022, Onassis Foundation, Athens (GR)

Omoiyari, 2022, Photographers Gallery, London (UK)

Thailand Biennale, 2021, Korat (TH)

Radical Gaming, 2021, HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste), Basel (CH)

Proof of Art, 2021, Francisco Carolinum, Linz (AU)

How will we live together?, 2021, 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice (IT)

Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, 2021, Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo (JP)

Augmented Empathy, 2021 FACT, Liverpool (UK)

How to Make a Paradise, 2020, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (DE)

Transmediale, 2020, Haus der Kulturen der Welt HKW, Berlin (DE)

Image Behaviour, 2019, Institute of Contemporary Arts ICA, London (UK)

Jerwood Collaborate! 2019, Jerwood Arts, London (UK)