Æther is a new audio-visual piece in development as an artistic collaboration of Evelyn Bencicova and Samson G Balfour Smith - Screenoise. Æther engages in world-building and story-telling, developing a narrative through body, voice, sound, space, and movement in the 3D realm. At the opening of Fotografiska Berlin, the first, introductory chapter of Æther: O - will be presented for the first time.
The story of Æther unfolds on several planes intersecting and gradually completing each other. The main character EVE- the avatar body of Evelyn B - questions and breaks through several modes of patriarchal domination and oppression that have been imposed on humanity in previous centuries as well as still today. EVE represents the new being- on a journey throughout history into the future, through anger, fear, and pain to understanding and compassion, she takes the viewer towards the world in the making. O chapter retells the origin story of Abrahamic religion in different interpretations, removing the concept of sin, shame, and guilt implied on women and reclaiming the body.
Sound and Landscapes are predominantly created out of graphic sound - an instrument created by Screennoise by designing sound magnetic forces into bodies, spaces, or architectures that further support the narrative line in a conceptual manner. Next to her physical passage through space EVE's inner realizations are communicated abstractly- through shapes and their movements - often materializing her thoughts through voice in so-called “sound bodies”, that express in yet another, symbolic language.
