Dorijan Šiško
Critical Hit

Exhibition
30 November 2022–16 December 2022
Aksioma | Project Space, Ljubljana

Part of U30+ production programme for supporting young artists

Critical Hit is a speculative video game that draws the gallery visitors into a post-virtual vision of parallel reality, which seems like a walking simulator set in the convoluted infrastructure of the Dantean circles of cyberspace. With this project, the artist and designer Dorijan Šiško continues his eclectic research into the aesthetics and the medium of video games by reflecting on the alternative relations between virtual and physical spaces and digital and material cultures.

Entering the arcade, players try to orient themselves within a spatiotemporal haze, following various material hints – light signals, a reflective map and ritualistic objects. When they approach the portal, they enter an endless circling in a limbo of sensory hyperstimulation permeated by sensations of the end and a designed image of an accelerated world. Lost in the wormholes of a hellish neon void, they use their voice to fight a battle with more or less abstract images of the demons of our time. Shifting between levels-worlds, the players screamingly realise that they are the key agents of anxiety driving this lore.

THE AUTHOR

Dorijan Šiško is a graphic designer and multimedia artist whose practice also extends to the fields of video games, animation, installation art, theatre and VJing. In his practice, he is interested in the speculative, critical, experimental and transmedia aspects of designing and art. Through creating visual-theoretical worlds, his works explore topics such as fringe digital culture, the dark sides of the internet, the future of humanity, tribalism, post-truth, virtual worlds, science fiction and popular culture. In 2019, he obtained his master’s degree in Graphic Design with honours from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana with his speculative design project TRIBE. He has received two Brumen Awards and a TRESK award. He is a member of the Freštreš and Nimaš Izbire collectives. His work was also presented at the 34th Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts – Iskra Delta.