Private Project

Nightsss

Nightsss – a virtual erotic poem; sensual VR experience of poetry, dance and nature

Nightsss is an artistic animation with ASMR and interactive elements that immerse the viewer in the sensual experience of poetry, dance and nature. The script was based on the spoken word poem “Nightsss”, in which the sounds characteristic of the Polish language create onomatopoeic landscapes crossing language barriers. What will you hear and see in the Nightsss environment if you can play with space and the space plays with your imagination and memory? Even when you do not understand words, emotions flow from ASMR sound relations and rhythmic structures, and from the choreography of the character, you will meet in the virtual world. Nightsss opens up the immersant for a sensual encounter with her/his own body, imagination and virtual space, which subtly resonate in thoughts and movements even after exiting the experience.

The VR Nightsss script is based on Weronika Lewandowska's spoken word poem „Noccc”, which has been translated into 13 languages and presented in over 20 countries, on 3 continents. The poem could also be heard in Paris during the exhibition "The Liberated Voice – Sound Poetry” at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, which presented the most important phenomena and compositions of sound poetry in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The VR Nightsss project was financed under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education programme within the framework of the “Regional Initiative of Excellence” for the years 2019-2022, project number 023/RID/2018/19, funding sum PLN 11 865 100.

The lack of subtitles is a conscious artistic choice affecting the perception of Nightsss.

Build files are available under the link specified in Project Files.

  • Sandra Frydrysiak
    Director
  • Weronika Lewandowska
    Director
  • Krzysztof Franek
    Producer
  • Krzysztof Pijarski
    Producer
  • Pola Borkiewicz
    Producer
  • Jacek Nagłowski
    Producer
  • Weronika Lewandowska
    Executive Producer
  • Anna Piekarska-Szczerba
    Production collaboration
  • Weronika Lewandowska
    Script
  • Sandra Frydrysiak
    Script
  • Weronika Lewandowska
    Poem written and performed by:
  • Marek Straszak
    360° Visual Environment, 3D Animation and Post-production
  • Arek Zub
    360° Visual Environment, 3D Animation and Post-production
  • Przemek Danowski
    Spatial Audio and Interaction
  • Marcin Macuk
    Music
  • Piotr Apostel
    Programming VR environment and interaction
  • Bohdan Piasecki
    Poem Translation
  • Weronika Lewandowska
    Reading of English Translation
  • Kaya Kołodziejczyk
    Choreography
  • Andrzej Słomiński
    Stunt Coordination
  • Piotr Nowacki
    Stunt Coordination
  • Tadeusz Perkowski
    Stunt Coordination
  • Sławosz Tejkowski
    Motion Capture
  • Roman Savchenko
    Motion Capture
  • Sandra Frydrysiak
    Research supervisor
  • Wojciech Olchowski
    Consultation and 360° Camera Recording
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Noccc
  • Project Type:
    Virtual Reality, Performance, Installation, Interactive Film
  • Runtime:
    7 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    January 27, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    21,555 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Poland
  • Language:
    English, Polish
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Sundance Film Festival

    United States
    January 28, 2021
    World Premiere
    New Frontier Selection
  • Melbourne International Film Festival
    Melbourne
    Australia
    August 7, 2021
    Australian
    XR Selection
  • Cinequest Film & VR Festival
    San Jose
    United States
    The Best Sound Design for VR & AR Reality Award
  • International Film Festival New Horizon
    Wroclaw
    Poland
    August 13, 2021
    Polish
    Solo Exhibition
  • GoEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film
    Wiesbaden
    Germany
    April 28, 2021
    European
    The Open Frame Award Official Selection
Distribution Information
  • Lodz Film School
    Distributor
    Country: Poland
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Sandra Frydrysiak, Weronika Lewandowska

Weronika Lewandowska

Spoken word poet, performer, PhD in cultural studies, researcher of new media and immersion experiences. Director, screenwriter and executive producer of the VR experience “Nightsss”. She experiments with interdisciplinary forms of poetry. VR Creative Consultant for BioMinds Healthcare XR system, which explores a new way for neurological rehabilitation.

VR Nightsss is based on her spoken word poem, which has been translated into 13 languages and presented in over 20 countries, on 3 continents. It could also be heard in Paris (2019) during the exhibition "The Liberated Voice - Sound Poetry at the Palais de Tokyo" that presented the most important phenomena and compositions of sound poetry in the 20th and 21st century.

In 2014-2016 she was a researcher in "+-brain. Cognitive Image of Dance.” The transdisciplinary study of dance perception in virtual reality (grant from SWPS University). On a daily basis, she deals with digital storytelling in the context of performance art and social media. She runs workshops on spoken word poetry, literary performances and VR/digital storytelling. Lecturer of creative writing at SWPS University in Warsaw and Performance Art Studies in Oslo (in 2017). Currently, in her artistic practice, she is focused on new media tools and immersive ways of expression that interfere with corporeality, embody presence, and have the potential to create non-binary digital stories.

Artist in Residence of The Performing Art International Visegrad Fund in Prague 2020 (360° Poetry Performance for CrossAttic/Bazaar Festival). Artist in Residence of RUK/Network of Art and Culture Research Centers, Kilba2Lab in Maribor 2021. Holder of The Artistic Scholarship of the City of Warsaw for 2021.


Sandra Frydrysiak

Director and screenwriter of the VR experience “Nightsss” . PhD in cultural studies, sociologist working in the areas of new media studies, dance studies and gender studies. Assistant Professor at the Cathedral of Cultural Studies at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. Member of the Interdisciplinary Research Center Humanities/Art/Technology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

Author of the book Dance in the Coupling of Sciences and Technologies. New perspectives in dance research (2017). A former contemporary dancer. In the years 2014-2016 project manager of ‘+- brain. Cognitive Image of Dance. Transdisciplinary Study of Dance Perception in Virtual Reality’ (BST grant, SWPS University). She cooperated with the Virtual Reality Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences and the Virtual Reality Laboratory, Central Institute for Labor Protection - National Research Institute.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Weronika Lewandowska, the director of Nightsss:

"Nightsss embodies the viewer’s desires and stimulates sensually."

Sandra Frydrysiak, the director of Nightsss:

"The viewer is immersed in the spectacle of the ambiguous embodiment."

VR piece Nightsss is a virtual erotic poem. The spatially composed poet’s voice takes the immersant to a virtual night environment in which one meets a dancing character. The dancer's organic movements blend with her virtual body. The character is once a poem and loses its materiality, and in a moment splits into other forms. Other times – it condenses so that hundreds of drops can illuminate the flora and bring out the color from the night scenery. Still another time – it takes on a human form that "passes" through the body of the immersant, and then disintegrates into particles of fluidized substance with unreal behavior. The night pulsates with a rhythmic space of sounds and movements, it is looped in words. Immersant sees his/her hands in the created world which serves as an anchor, allowing for small interactions.

The potential of combining different qualities that can be applied to virtual space has been used in NIghtsss – generative forms that have organic movement, and organic forms that exceed the limits of predictable motorics, gravity and matter (just like imaginary objects). Nightsss integrates many sensual experiences with metaphor and language game – thus playing with the perception of the immersant and constructing a synesthesia environment. Dance and choreography in a transmedia spirit transform the poem, exploring its new dimensions. The character “dances” the poem, but also builds up new meanings to it. The relationship between the immersant, the poem, interactive sound space, dynamically changing image, movement of the character and objects of the night – creates a unique experience.

Rhythmic transformation ends in a daytime environment that brings meditative space for reflection on one's body and movement in virtual space. After many transformations we can stand for a moment in front of the large virtual Sun and absorb its heat, resonating not only in our virtual body. Nightsss explores the possibilities of VR storytelling and dance in the context of the changing perception of technologically created spatial experiences and the development of the kinetic empathy of the immersant in the embodied experience of virtual space.