FlowerLab

“FlowerLab” unites the dynamic worlds of virtual reality and techno music in a mind-bending exploration of sci-fi, extended reality, and cyberpunk. Primordial rhythms that resonate deep lead into temporary spaces of freedom, where the real and the unreal converge. As the living narratives unfold, you'll encounter nano-organisms and ghost avatars, living beings that emerge from the data's very essence. Passion and joy emanate from the mesmerizing data transmission flows, birthing organisms that exist in the liminal spaces between noise, glitches, and intricate access calculations.

This posthuman fantasy is full of tides of intense soundwaves that engulf senses, guided by deep techno rumbles, and bleeps. Echoes of long-forgotten ambient soundscapes from abandoned warehouses linger in the air, setting the backdrop for an otherworldly dimension. "FlowerLab" is an amalgamation of a post-internet listening bar, an art installation, and a warehouse rave. Here, you'll be immersed in the nostalgic echoes of abandoned factories. This series of events unfolds as a live sci-fi art game, a trip, a riddle, and an open book, offering layers of reality that unravel with each beat. Ultramono events go beyond the confines of the digital realm, plunging into the ultra-real, where future bodies and mutated machine sculptures coexist.

Looking through the virtual windows, you'll glimpse iconic scenes from the lives of the enigmatic Gardenenrs, Florists and Pharmacists, the imaginary-real inhabitants and founders of the enigmatic “Flowerlab”. In this ongoing narrative, reality blurs with fantasy, leaving you questioning what is truly human and what lies beyond matter. We delve into the unknown, embrace the phantasy, and embark on a transformative journey while hearing echoes of the soul of the machine. Unveiling a futuristic fusion, "FlowerLab" is the virtual reality techno art and music extravaganza.

"FlowerLab" is just one of many worlds of the AvantGarden transcending the boundaries of reality. Ultramono events are truly immersive happenings that bring together the worlds of virtual reality and techno music. This sci-fi, ultra-reality, and cyberpunk art installation is the culmination of artistic exploration. Headlined by the innovative artist and music producer Tanja Vujinovic, these events transport participants into an otherworldly experience. Tanja Vujinovic is usually joined by an exclusive lineup of guests, each renowned for their unique and forward-thinking approach to music.

Notes written during the development of the Flowerlab v1
Flowerlab is a world where potential histories of Proto-machines of the AvantGarden unfold in all directions. Flowerlab is a space of free meditation, where playgrounds overlap and where, as Félix Guattari would put it, the chaosmic Universe can be constellated with all kinds of becomings: vegetal, animal, cosmic, or machinic.

One type of events happening in these spaces are raves with electronic dance music. Revolving around ideas or temporary playgrounds-zones of liberation through raves, these events provide a form of salvation and come out of necessity. As they are happening in environments that enable us to appear within these worlds as avatars, we are experiencing the environment also through optional role plays. Socio-political power of being temporarily transformed into something Other, into some other Thing, other than ourselves, can be both transgressive and empowering.

Joining in from all parts of the world, people are spending time together to share their experiences, skills, the music they love, and art they appreciate. The universal and the local become cosmic elevation of minds embodied in avatars and their actions.

Rave is a political act of resistance. Rave is an act of liberation. Relieved from the pressure of standardized norms of behavior, gender, and uniformization one feels uplifted.

Electronic dance music is about temporary spaces and soundscapes created by soundwaves and our interaction with the environment that expands to include our imagination instigated by multisensorial input. Good electronic dance music is empowering and liberating. Micro samples, otherworldy background noises, multiplied by machinic repetitions of micro vehicles, with occasional lingering human resembling sound or a partial word multiplied so it stretches over soundscape around us in real-time. This is a perfect sound interface that enables us to look closer into the state of our relationship with technology. Us and the other we created in form of machinic, computerized, algorithmic Other.

As we are invested more and more into the so-called Noosphere, a technological layer on top of the planet Earth, and within grids, we have weaved around ourselves and others, our identities and accepted norms shift to include more of those non-human agents we are creating. As the meeting point of us and the technologies that we build, this space is the place of special importance where we meet our creations. AI agents, avatars, bots, and automated services are within us and our tissues, our movements, and decisions.

The idea behind the AvantGarden is to provide a space for thinking about our collective efforts and the technologies we use. To feel, sense, move, dance, rave. To get in touch, to empower. To encourage active participation in building communities within virtual art installations.

Resistance, empowerment, and ritualistic gatherings are all part of the almost daily activities being carried out across multiple social online spaces within my art installations as well as the spaces other people have created. Within these temporary spaces made of pixels, polygons, sound waves, and thinking-feeling, raves, meetups, or guided meditation sessions emerge as an agents of change - as an agency of personal and collective renewal.

These multi-sensory art installations are the vehicles where events happen in a state of flux. Inclusiveness, adaptability, flexibility to accept other viewpoints and highly needed tolerance in times of global crisis are counteracting negativity and oppression. Respect towards the Other, the environment of living agents and things, has been a part of the ethos of early rave culture from the start, and it is embedded within the Ultramono AvantGarden projects.