SUBSTRATE
System activation tonight.
FEEL THE SUBSTRATE
Liquid / vapor / atmospheric matter
Floral + amber extraction residues circulating through image, sound, space
SYNTHSPA ONLINE
VRChat + Second Life
continuous access after activation
SUBSTRATE
digital artist book
67 pages of synthetic residue
atmospheric fragments
rendered bodies
cosmetic systems
AVANTGARDEN: SYNTHSPA
Black Box Ljubljana
18:00
More about the project:
Synthetic bodies appear in hydrotherapy environments, reflective interiors, and controlled sensory fields.
Bathing sequences unfold in regulated conditions of water, light, vegetation, and cosmetic matter. Movement remains slow, suspended, non-emphatic.
Behavioral stillness persists.
A spatial field of sculptural systems introduces calibration environments: machinic devices, hydroponic structures, cosmetic instruments, and synthetic garden architectures.
Operational states remain active without declared function.
SUBSTRATE circulates as liquid, vapor, reflective matter, and atmospheric field. Derived from floral and amber extracts, it connects image, sound, object, and space into continuous material distribution.
Function remains unresolved.
Reflective architectures and hydrotherapy environments extend into virtual space.
Systems continue across physical and digital layers.
BLOOM and SPECIMENS operate as parallel formations within the same ecosystem: synthetic portrait conditions, behavioral loops, cosmetic embodiment, and speculative wellness procedures.
Therapeutic aesthetics, environmental control, and technological regulation converge into a continuous synthetic condition.
SYNTHSPA
Very happy to announce SYNTHSPA, a new series of interconnected works unfolding across upcoming exhibitions and online environments.
SYNTHSPA began from an interest in environments designed around permanent optimisation. Spa systems, biotech aesthetics, cosmetic interfaces, wellness rituals, ambient sound, liquid states, and virtual worlds gradually merged into a single atmospheric condition.
The project moves through an ambiguous zone between rendered body, designed species, simulation, and behavioral conditioning. Synthetic humanoid figures appear suspended inside immersive environments shaped through hydrotherapy imagery, sensory regulation systems, environmental design, and speculative wellness procedures.
Some works function almost like biotech advertisements or atmospheric simulations for entities already born inside synthetic environments. Others focus on body calibration, immersion, maintenance rituals, or virtual architectures operating in continuous loops.
The series currently includes audiovisual works, experimental soundscapes, virtual worlds, digital sculptures, the SUBSTRATE artist book, and spatial installation systems developed through AI image and video generation, procedural workflows, and sound composition.
Tools used throughout the process include Blender, Ableton Live, Leonardo, Suno, Affinity Designer, Pixelmator Pro, Unreal Engine, Unity3D/VRChat, and custom AI workflows trained on my own 3D renders.
SYNTHSPA
AVANTGARDEN: SYNTHSPA
Intermedia installation
28 May 2026, 18:00
Black Box, Ljubljana
Production: ULTRAMONO
Exhibition co-produced by ULTRAMONO and Black Box
Supported by the City of Ljubljana – Department for Culture
Tanja Vujinovic presents AVANTGARDEN: SYNTHSPA, an installation unfolding across physical and virtual space. The exhibition brings together audiovisual works, digital prints, a vapor-based SUBSTRATE system, and virtual environments into a unified atmospheric field.
The work constructs a calm condition shaped through controlled sensory regimes, ambient sound, and post-natural architectural forms. Across the video works, synthetic humanoid figures appear within carefully composed spaces of immersion and suspension. Bodily actions unfold slowly, maintaining states of stillness, restoration, and continuous regulation.
The installation includes IMMERSION and SPECIMENS, presented as video works with sound, extending SYNTHSPA into scenes of tactile engagement and speculative wellness procedures. Bodies remain embedded in constructed settings where material, atmosphere, and gesture form a continuous field of perception and control.
SUBSTRATE operates throughout as liquid, vapor, and atmospheric matter. Derived from two floral extracts and a single amber extract, it links image, sound, object, and space into a shared material field.
The work extends into virtual environments, where sculptural systems, ambient sound, and architectural forms continue across digital platforms. Closely related subseries such as BLOOM and SPECIMENS expand the broader SYNTHSPA framework through investigations into synthetic portraiture, behavioral conditioning, cosmetic embodiment, and speculative wellness systems.
Across the project, therapeutic aesthetics, technological regulation, and environmental design converge into a coherent synthetic condition.
SUBSTRATE, a digital artist book accompanying SYNTHSPA, is available for download at:
https://www.tanjav.art/substrate
From 28 May 2026 onward, the SYNTHSPA world is open to the public in VRChat and Second Life.
SYNTHSPA world in Second Life:
SYNTHSPA world in VRChat:
Emergent ecology of the MIND GARDEN: New AVANTGARDEN Environments
Avantgarden explores technological ecosystems where hybrid bodies, digital environments, and synthetic organisms evolve within speculative infrastructures.
MIND GARDEN introduces a new ecological zone as a next chapter of the AVANTGARDEN project.
This work explores the idea of digital environments as evolving ecosystems. Using AI-generated sequences, fragments of virtual landscapes, and layered motion compositions, the project constructs synthetic gardens where elements behave like living organisms.
Objects grow, transform, and interact with each other, forming speculative ecologies that exist somewhere between video collage, generative animation, and virtual landscape construction.
Several new sequences are emerging within this framework.
SYNTHSPA: A technological ecosystem where wellness systems, hybrid bodies, and signal-responsive environments form a living digital habitat.
From within this system the MIND GARDEN environments begin to emerge, softer zones where synthetic ecologies evolve beyond optimization.
THE FACE FIELD explores the transformation of human faces within these digital environments. Portrait fragments appear and dissolve within synthetic landscapes, reflecting on the relationship between identity and algorithmic vision.
These works continue my long-term exploration of hybrid bodies, digital worlds, and techno-organic ecosystems within the broader AVANTGARDEN series.
More material will be released soon.
AVANTGARDEN 3.0: Guided Tour and Event at Match Gallery
Thank you everyone for last night. It was wonderful to spend time with such a thoughtful group of people during the guided tour of the exhibition. Your patience, curiosity, and the depth of the questions made the 45-minute conversation truly rewarding. I hope I managed to share at least a portion of the ideas behind the works on display, although this is always an ongoing process, there are always additional layers of research, sketches, diagrams, and references that reveal even more of the evolving ecosystem behind the AVANTGARDEN series of interconnected works.
The exhibition presents a selection of projects from my long-term research into synthetic environments, avatars, and speculative habitats. Across video works, digital sculptures, and immersive spatial compositions, these pieces explore how technological systems shape perception, identity, and collective experience. AVANTGARDEN imagines digital environments as living infrastructures, spaces where avatars, hybrid entities, and evolving landscapes coexist within speculative ecological systems.
After the guided tour, the evening continued with an incredible event co-organized with the Zenith collective. Cosmic techno sets by Lucius Light, Waknu, and M62Hb transformed the gallery into a vibrant social space. This kind of activation expands a practice I have been developing for many years through ULTRAMONO AVANTGARDEN installations across various online social and VR environments. Bringing music, gatherings, and informal exploration of the exhibition into the same space continues my long-term interest in how art environments can function as places of communal experience.
Thank you again to everyone who came yesterday.
For those who missed it, the exhibition remains open until 15 March.
