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A system of VR lasers is installed within the installation space. In this piece, the artist merges the real world with virtual space, which can only be examined via a special device which coverts sounds into haptic stimuli. How the digital projection will be generated hinges on how the person manipulating a special controller “touches” the virtual object in the middle of the installation. This virtual object is a 3D model of an elephant which is shown in pieces, instead of as a whole. Depending on the movements the users perform, they get to see different parts of the animal. As the room is darkened, they must rely on the senses of hearing and touch.

In this piece, the artist draws on the traditional Indian parable of the blind men and an elephant, in which a group of the blind tried to establish what an elephant looked like by touching the animal. Because each of them touched another part of its body, none of them was capable of accurately describing the animal. In the context of the installation, The Elephant refers to the sheer impossibility of grasping exactly what reality is. Our limited senses and cognition are incapable of fully examining that which surrounds us. This incapacity is metaphorically conveyed by the artist, who transfers elements of the traditional parable into the virtual world.

Maciej Gniady (1988) – an intermedia artist focused on art-science and working with virtual spaces, motion sensors, and sound synthesizers. In his works, he explores a range of phenomena, including cybernetic community, hybrid reality, transhumanism, and cybernetic poetry. A member of the DAS Collective, he has shown his works at multiple venues, such as the Wooster Group Performing Garage in New York, Warsaw’s Rozmaitości Theater, Nowy Theater, and Powszechny Theater, Wroclaw’s Polski Theater in the Underground, the Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, the Bunker of Art and Kosciuszko Mound within the Genius Loci Festival, ArsTechne, and Audio Art. He is an awardee of the Scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2016) and the Diamond Grant (2017). Since 2018, he has worked his Ph.D. project at the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow.