“καίω” (burn) was a project developed and exhibited by Nemo Nonnenmacher during the 3 months of his residency at Thinker Maker Space. Nemo has been exploring the materiality of remnants collected from areas that were devastated by wildfires. The work reflects on the personal experience through the sense of touch and develops a new tactility through digital tools. Charred bark becomes a sculptural object and is digitalised in a VR Environment and interactive video installation. Through processes of transformation, καίω draws on the emotional reaction to physicality and the implications of remote interconnectivity through new technologies and media.

The VR environment and video in this exhibition are playing live on a cloud server and are being streamed to the headset/display. Visually they combine a mixture of open-source assets and scans taken directly from the Mediterranean. An ultrasonic distance sensor communicates wireless with both environments and changes parameters of speed, camera direction, particle intensity and sound, depending on the position of the viewer. At the same time, live temperature data from Arakapas (an area in Cyprus where 55 square kilometers burnt in a wildfire in July 2021) controls the light intensity f the environment at any given time of day.