‘Downonly’ is the new interactive installation by Nikita Diakur, in which the artist continues his exploration of the loss of control, advocating the ugly and unpredictable. The fall, as the unifying element of this generative project, on-chain and which understands animation as an interactive process, allows for the generation of a play space in which the artist entrusts his own creative process to the public.
With the artist’s usual DIY aesthetic, a computer is pushed towards the edge of a staircase, indicating an immovable directionality, the end of a process, which can be slowed down or accelerated by the participants through their online interaction. Through a reverse bidding system, participation is invited for the acquisition of unique works that function as an archive of what is disputed throughout the process of interaction with the work. In this way, the fall, functioning as the gravitational axis of the project, manages to contain the usual tensions of digital environments, generating a multiple narrative that does not privilege any plane or perspective, but abstracts and shows the different agencies and dynamics that are simultaneously involved in the functioning of the work.
The narrative and spatial tension coexists in turn with the indeterminacy derived from working with what the artist himself calls ‘interactive animation’, in which not only the agential framework of the computer is recognized, but also that of the object itself. Simulation, as a generator of conditions of possibility, allows a processual exploration not centered on the final object, but on the development of its environment. The indeterminacy is contained in the resulting object itself, a purely digital file that always appeals to the beyond of what is contained by itself, that can never fully unfold as its generative condition, always simulated.
The function of the fall not only determines a mechanical and temporary end to the installation itself, but it is the gear and guiding thread of Nikita Diakur’s artistic practice. In works such as ‘Ugly’ (2017), ‘Fest’ (2018) or ‘backflip’ (2022), the narrative function gradually evolves towards fragmentation and unpredictability, while carrying both emotional and symbolic weight for the artist. Falling, in ‘Downonly’, results in ‘a finite and fragmented chain of falls, shaped by the actions of the participants rather than by a single creator or computer. It is about accepting the fall as a journey and a destination, a process open to its organic outcome.’
‘Downonly’ is a time-limited interactive work. At once installation, interactive game and limited series of digital works, it invites participants to experience and intervene in an exploration of falling and loss of control.
Participation will take place through the project’s website, where users, via blockchain, will be able to bid on simulations. Participants’ decisions will directly affect the duration of the work. The software that allows participation is housed in a computer located at the top of a staircase, which will be thrown off the edge and thus, the participation process and therefore, the work, will conclude.
This interactive phase of the artwork will be hosted at SOLO Independencia on November 20 and 21. The installation, once completed, will remain visible for public access until December 30.
Plan your visit on SOLO’s website and follow the conversation on Onkaos’s social media.