Summary
Hi. I go by the alias Aluta Null. I'm a digital artist from SA who plays with new and old digital media, largely extended reality and video games. Borne by the glitch, I try to experiment with creative technologies where critical design, storytelling, art, and user interactivity are concerned. I'm having a lot of fun exploring the range of my abilities and would love for you to witness this journey. Below are my bio and background. Peace <3
ARTIST BIO :
Aluta Null (real name ████) is a digital artist and game developer from Johannesburg, South Africa. Their work spans a variety of digital mediums including extended reality and video games. Aluta commonly goes by Aluta’s Theory on social media, as a nod to the questions, thoughts, and observations they tend to litter their digital surroundings with.
Offering unique commentary and expressing their cabinet of curiosities, Aluta creates work that tackles politics, perception, pop culture, and technology – often coated in cheeky irreverence – using many absurdist and punk paradigms. Central to Null’s creed is the belief that the mundane tends to carry an assortment of ignored grandeur, thus inspiring them to address topics and ideas that are often ignored by many people. Through a glitchy lens, Aluta Null uses technology to create and share interactive, interesting, and accessible experiences of their artistic visions.
Null’s Johannesburg upbringing, and observations of contrast and tension within the city, have inspired their interest in juxtaposing polarizing ideas in their work, through imagining and showcasing bizarre, extreme, and non-existent concepts and creations. Aluta Null meditates on what art means, what the digital is, and what their fusion can be . . .
BACKGROUND :
In 2020, Aluta graduated from Wits University with an Honors Degree in Digital Arts, majoring in Game Development. This is where they found their digital artistic voice. This academic background as the formal foundation for Aluta Null’s creative practice bred a mind that continually considers the relationship between humans and machines, thus making much of their work digital and interactive. Null spent their Honours focusing on Volumetric Filmmaking. Alongside their 2020 research paper ('Dreams and Nightmares: Exploring Mental States and Spaces Through VR'), an immersive Virtual Reality project was created, titled My Therapist Said. This exploration of digitally translating binary states of consciousness would be the first of many creations that centre perception and the mind.
Following teenage and early adult years of online and creative exploration, the thought-provoking Aluta Null persona was debuted through 'RUN ME MY MONEY' (2021), an Extended Reality collection of work exhibited at TMRW Gallery. Immediately after this, Null showcased another digital creation at TMRW Gallery, titled 'EVERYTHING IS BOTHERING ME' (2021). This was trailed by more years of artistic experimentation, learning, and creation. Aluta has since worked on projects with several local and international festivals, and cultural and academic institutions (universities and art galleries), as a developer, designer, creative director, and artist . . .
HIGHLIGHTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS :
Finalist → IDFA DocLab (Digital Storytelling)
Winner → Fak’ugesi Awards 2023 (Extended Reality)
Lead Visual Director → VOTS at Fringe Festival 2023 ('Still Connecting...')
Creative Director → ME + THE MACHINE at Africa Games Week 2022
Recipient → Electric South XR Social Impact Grant 2022
Showcase + Web Design → Counter Considerations by Affect Lab at STRP Festival Eindhoven 2022
Recipient → 5th Bubblegum Club Artist Residency 2021
LinkTree for more: https://linktr.ee/alutas_theory
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Skills
Software proficiency
