Skopein VR

The Skopein project explores the boundaries between art, technology, and creative thinking by developing a machine that generates unique shadow worlds through artistic and technical experimentation. Collaborating across universities and industries, the team has advanced from physical prototypes to immersive installations and virtual reality. Each iteration deepens understanding of the creative process, highlighting generativity and interdisciplinary exploration. The project’s outcomes include published research and innovative exhibitions, showcasing new ways machines and artists can co-create.

With the Skopein project, associate professor Michael Johansson and his colleague Andreas Siess have explored the intersection of art, technology, and creative cognition. Their ongoing research investigates the interplay between human and computational imagination, asking how knowledge, professional experience, and artistic intent can merge to generate surprising, unexpected outcomes across artistic fields.

At the heart of their work lies the iterative development of a “machine.” Initially, this took the form of a physical prototype, later expanding into the virtual. The ambition was to build a system capable of generating original “realities” and “shadow worlds” without relying on existing image or data sources, instead producing visual worlds on its own terms through interaction with artistic intentions.

The project Skopein, launched as an extension of this trajectory, resulted in a video and animation-based installation (2022) where the machine’s creative shadow projections immersed viewers in new visuals. As the project evolved, 2023 saw the exploration of “playability,” turning the machine into an interactive instrument for musical and conceptual co-creation. In 2024, development extended into virtual reality, involving several universities and industry partners, aiming for a major presentation in Bonn.

The research is grounded in artistic prototyping, where each cycle of the machine’s development—and its resulting shadow worlds—becomes a learning process. The goal has been to deepen understanding of the complexity and ambiguity of shadows, as these manifest in both physical and digital media. The focus is strongly on generativity: knowledge and results emerge from a continuous chain of associative, reflective prototyping rather than from linear production.

Recent phases have emphasized refining detailed silhouettes and experimenting with layerings and materials, creating new visual possibilities such as digital images transferred onto metal sheets. There is also a distinct focus on integrating theoretical models—such as KHT—to document and steer the creative process. This ongoing work has resulted in several publications and aims to both drive artistic innovation and expand our understanding of how generative, machine-based art can be formed and developed.