FUTURE FORECASTING

What makes for a great font? What to look for in one? And do we even need new types? The duo behind Heavyweight, the renowned Prague-based type design service, answer these and other questions to the letter, offering a unique and well-founded perspective into the field of typography even for the uninitiated.

“I do believe that VR has the potential to host some of the best art and cultural objects the world has ever seen.” Interdisciplinary artist Samuel Capps creates virtual landscapes and objects that might seem familiar in a dream but that fail to be identified once you wake up. Enjoy an interview with the artist.

With collaborations ranging from the Disney musical Frozen to super-dimensional beings, Xixi Tong’s conscious experiments with materials form not only futuristic textures, but also a poignant social message. Read her commentary on her recent projects along with an outline for self-conception in increasingly authoritarian times.

Czech artist Lenka Glisníková mainly focuses on photography but uses it as a foundation from which she overarches several other expressive media, such as sculpture, performance, installation or digital manipulation. Her exploratory works often touch on how the constantly expanding presence of technology in our lives shapes our day-to-day reality.

A soft cave, a robot dog and harmonious solitude... Mit Borrás’ vision of the future is one where technology returns humans to a primordial, ritualistic state, ultimately merging with nature, transcending that dichotomy claiming tech is somehow separated from our souls. The HEAVVEN exhibition develops the Cycle even further, so delve into the curatorial and authorial texts to this Ship of Theseus.

Art-curatorial project Is It Just a Myth? moves across physical and virtual landscapes. The visitor experiences an encounter with the work and untouched nature through the flat screen of their device. Via these means, curator Bára Čápová is looking for new ways of creating and presenting art at the border between online and physical interfaces.

Augmented reality has taken the pandemic world by storm. Sarah Mayer is one of the designers spearheading the trend, bringing traditional costume design into the digital realm. In this exclusive interview, the Creative Director for Popul-AR not only divulges her tools and inspirations, but also her perspective on the future of mankind and technology.

Can our memory be corrupted by art and should the viewer take bigger responsibility for how they perceive said art? Michele Gabriele's distinctive artworks try to feel the borders of the gap between the art piece and the perception of the ones that observe it.

Conveying the uncomfortable state of a soul inhabiting flesh that does not reflect its infinite nature is a delicate process. Skyler Pham has taken to expressing this existential friction through their 3D figures which, with their abstract shapes and shells, have overcome this terminality, becoming pre-images for a post-contemporary world.

For Mia Jadrna, the founder of the Czech MiJA fashion brand, no scrap fabric is too small to use for her playful, recycled, and colour-blocked streetwear collections. We bring you an exclusive interview with the author.

The phantastechnological realms and brilliant creatures you see are the neon tears of Axeknight’s 3D muses. Inspired by music and video games, the entities conjured predicate a distant world removed far from human comprehension. Perhaps your vertigo may be allayed by this exclusive SWARM MAG interview with their creator.

When you encounter the vibrant, mesmerizing audiovisual works of Czech artist Jan Matýsek, which often accompany his immersive tongue-in-cheek installations, you feel immediately drawn in as if by ritualistic incantations intended to put you on the cusp of an almost trance-like state.

Enter Heim Group, the fashion and visual designer brand, and their recent collection concept oscillating between the sacred and blasphemous. “...Angels chirping, they whispered that a person is able to rise to the level of god only when the devil overcomes them.” Strap up and step in, for the divine may yet be the future.

The objects Audrey Large crafts carry an ever-evolving aspect and aim to challenge our perception of surfaces. Exclusively for SWARM Mag, the French, Rotterdam-based artist wrote a series of in-depth insights about her most loved and intricate bodies of work, heavily influenced by American researcher Jane Bennet who centers her investigations around “vibrating matter”.

Dig with us into the crates of electro, an often-forgotten genre which spawned multitudes of music genres in the 80s and is now coming back in force. Accompanied by an interview with the author of the text’s mesmerizing images, Sofia Palm, SWARM MAG invites you to an audiovisual journey with plenty forward-looking tunes coming to a club near you soon.

SWARM MAG and selected Portuguese visual artists came together to create the latest edition of the Lobster Scarf Collection, this time on the topic of Future Forecasting. Delve into the collaborative project’s motivations, perspectives and inspirations along with interviews with the involved artists. Stay warm and keep the future fun!

Hello wanderer, you've stumbled upon the Gooniverse. Feel free to enjoy your presence here despite (or thanks to) your confusion – this world wasn't made to make sense to you. You're welcomed to soak up Balfua's wildly intricate and layered artistic vision.

“It's almost 2022 and I think many things don't matter anymore.” Keiga’s design work is all about balance: between digital and old-school tailoring, or creative work and manual labor. In this SWARM MAG interview, the Chinese, London-based designer talks about Surplus Value Center, his recent project offering social commentary on the conditions of Chinese factory workers.

Reminiscent of 80s video-game worlds full of ultraviolence and tech-obsessed, metal- and leather-clad villains and villainesses, Pol-Edouard's illustrations will envelop your senses with a dizzying, flashy and almost tribalistic feel.

In her studies in femininity, Hélène Jeudy creates captivating digital artworks and films with a refreshing spin on the timeless notion of the female, bringing the issue into the context of evolution and technology. Immerse yourself in the young aspiring artist’s collaborative oeuvre that will force you to reconsider your outdated stereotypes.