bit the apple, so what?

The player navigates through digital musical theater play scenes. This project joins experimental pop, psychedelic and techno sounds with virtual theater and space installations as it follows the 1920s Yugoslav zenitist drama text "Eastern Sin".

In consists of 4 songs:
(1st) Adam laments over the loneliness of existence (AI generated haikus),(2nd) Eve's ode to sensuality (referencing iconic Balkan pop-lyrics),(3rd) Abrahamic God warns of their doom (this part is left in the original 1920s drama shape),(4th) Adam and Eve leaving the Garden of Eden (adapted by writers Suzana Džuver and Una Kapetan).

This work juxtaposes all those influences that created the contemporary global monoculture, from the 19th century onwards. Its elements are supposed to provide the wider context of the planet Earth in its variety (kaleidoscope of landscapes, architectural styles, historical events). The music is supposed to be the ultimate symbol of vitality – a high energy, Eros-fueled, powerful display of the joy of life – a blend of alternative and mainstream music: electronic sounds, pop melodies and Middle Eastern/Balkan elements.

Exploration of the influence of the Abrahamic religions and American pop culture on the global civilization by recontextualizing the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve into a contemporary, globalized Eastern European setting.

Combining procedures and principles from disciplines such as spatial and sound installations, video art, musicals, opera, theater, film, video games, etc. Dancing along the thin line between experimentality and likeability of pop culture. Discovering the expressive potential of new technologies.

Fresh and original take on the positive sides that the globalism and American pop culture had on Eastern and Western Europe, as it accentuates the positive common values of the USA, Europe and "the East" - in this way encouraging an emancipation from "identity segregation", encouraging the artists not to shy away from "Eastern" or "Western" heritage in their own culture but to use them as their own freely and incorporate them into their work. It also seeks to crush the dichotomy between "elite art" and "popular art", showing how they always complement, inform and inspire each other and are deeply intertwined.

NARRATION

The dramaturgy of the work largely relies on the dramatic text of Ljubomir Micić. All technical, directorial, musical and scenographic solutions are subordinated to draw the viewer as much as possible into the story itself and its layers of meaning.
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INTERACTIVITY
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The ability to move through space and explore it significantly contributes to the feeling of immersion in work. It will be used in some scenes as a tool of Brecht's "alienation", ie the presence of interactive menus and interfaces will remind the viewer to be in the game / virtual drama, to awaken the critical distance, and then immerse himself in the action again.

SPATIALITY
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The space in certain scenes will be designed according to the logic of the theater stage (with a clear center and focus of the action but with the difference that it will be able to move around it), while in some scenes the space will be such that the viewer can wander through space. through individual videos and sounds in space (as an artistic audio-visual installation). In some scenes, the space will be abolished, that is, completely two-dimensional, filled with interfaces, menus, numbers, in order to evoke the entry into the futuristic world of codes and machines.

DOCUMENTARINESS
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The impression of the authenticity of certain videos can be enhanced by placing them in a virtual, surreal space, where we contrast the "raw" nature of the video with the "artificial, constructed" nature of the virtual space. In this way, the video in the virtual space can be experienced as a kind of "window into reality", which results in greater persuasiveness of the story.

VISUALITY
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The visual identity of this work rests on eclecticism. In accordance with the most modern musical production of the musical, the visual poetics will rely on the sensibility of internet subcultures that see beauty in the endless postmodernist mix of styles, epochs and aesthetics.

MUSIC
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In terms of genre, the music production in this work is inspired by dream pop, IDM, deconstructed club, glitch-hop, trip-hop, Arabic, Turkish, experimental electronic music. The use of new expressions creates a special kind of position towards the past, where certain things are retained and / or transformed, and some are rejected.
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Direction, art direction, level design, UI design: Stanko Gagrčin

Music production: Lav Kovač
Vocals: Ena Inđin, Aleksandar Mladenović, Živan Popović, X
Lyrics: Suzana Džuver, Una Kapetan, Lav Kovač, Ena inđin, Stanko Gagrčin
Character animatoin: Aleksa Damjanović

Inspired by the drama "Eastern Sin" (1920) by the author Ljubomir Micić
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Translations: Marina Sakač, Filip Pozar, Crina Mirela Ienciu, Karina Vasechko, Viktor Adam