TOWARDS TERRA

Since 2016, London-based Gregory Kara has been crafting costumes and accessories for the likes of Grimes, Lady Gaga, P!nk, Nicky Minaj and many more. His stylistic focus could be best described as war-nymph aesthetic, and Kara's work predominantly includes facial accessories, oscillating between masks and headdresses, and also bodices or armour-like full-body pieces (and an occasional custom eyepatch for Madonna). Let us treat you to an exclusive interview with the artist below, including a truly uplifting parting message.

The Berlin-based Tabitha Swanson has tried and mastered her hand in all things design, spanning the creation of 3D animations, user experiences, and fashion. Join us today in exploring her insider knowledge from the industry and creative process, accompanied by her mesmerizing VR animations.

Originally from Slovakia, Mata Durikovic (MADbyMAD) is a fashion designer currently working with Chanel in Paris, as she enchanted the brand (and the rest of the world) with her use of self-produced edible bioplastic “fabrics”. In an interview with SWARM Mag, she draws aside the curtain on the playful flowery language of her garments, her childhood imaginative extraterrestrial inspiration, how the leftover starch water from boiling potatoes her late grandmother used to water plants with inspired her to invent her signature “Bioplastic Crystal Leather” and more.

“Cosmic Planta is the story of a planet in a completely different galaxy that has not yet been discovered. Only our green friends live on the planet; plants and trees. After a special asteroid from outer space lands on this green planet, everything changes...” In today’s feature, Princess Hıdır invites us to her vivid universe where Ozoyo’s ephemeral beats pulse with the sentient flora’s breaths.

“I build with the knowledge that art can be used as a protopian influence to help the advancement of technology and design.” Amanda R. Teske, or Tesxe for the art world, is a digital designer with passion for product design, AI, wellness biohacking, biomimetic research and tech optimism towards the future. She might also have created a new aesthetic genre of elven mecha-futurism. A truly captivating in-depth and interview with the artist continues below.

Tea Strazicic’s visual narrative goes hand in hand with the eponymous experimental story of a group of friends shedding their individuality in achieving a more genuine interconnection. Join this otherworldly troupe on their psychedelic-futuristic journey and perhaps you too will purge a part of yourself you no longer need.

“We are now entering a magical age where spells and spirits are becoming a reality.” Dubbed “the brand for the Metaverse”, the duo of creators behind PET LIGER, Constantinos Panayiotou and Calibrate, crafts and exhibits 3D art and virtual footwear. With inspiration ranging from 90's manga illustrations to UK music scene's grime and garage, they partner with brands such as Gucci and pave the way for digital haute couture.

“Deep down I'm basically making tech altars and totems” claims Mit Borrás, the creator of the newest installment of the Adaptasi Cycle. This time, the Berlin-Madrid-based visual storyteller turns to a futuristic civilization that has through technology long overcome human limits and re-found its roots with nature. The video is accompanied by an inspiring explication and interview that sculpt out this eclectic vision of the future of human adaptation.

Elmo Mistiaen, the founder and designer of the Brussels-based brand aidesign.png, transforms outerwear into biomorphic outdoor fashion by using AI-generated concepts that invoke otherworldly puffy designs, drawing (predominantly) on the insect world. SWARM Mag interviewed the artist on his practices.

Timothée Boubay’s roots in spray art developed into the mastery of a digital airbrush style. Using a precise geometrical approach, the French artist’s works take us to sci-fi fantasy worlds that explicate his abstract themes. In his take on Future Forecasting, Timothée accompanies his materialized visions with an explication of his formative influences.

Due to the recent emergence of a certain popular TV series, many people acquired new fear – mycelium inoculating and spreading through our soft flesh. Martina Kocianova is a Slovak jewellery designer and contemporary artist/maker crafting fairy-tale pieces that are designed as extensions of the body. But don't worry, these 'shrooms are friendly.

Having grown up at an intersection of past industry and mountainous nature, the Budapest-based Ádám Horváth creates works of art that explore fragile, liminal sensibilities. His mystical visual creations carry the romanticist silver thread of returning to an omnipresent nature when technologies relentlessly transform yesterday into tomorrow. Enjoy his “ode to disappointment” today, along with an interview with Ádám and a curatorial text that sheds further light on his brushstrokes.

“I would really like to see a society where emotional value concurred economic value.” Swedish fashion designer Miranda Borg Blomquist kindly let us in on the building and creative processes behind her wearable sculptural accessory pieces in a little chat with SWARM Mag.

Amir Zand’s unique creative vision has attracted many names in the sci-fi culture industry, but today we present you with his personal playground. Enter Anomaly, Amir’s passion project where he is unconstrained by the requirements of clients like Disney, Netflix or Microsoft, and where he can fully delve into expressing his most intimate experiences and visions in visual form. You will find he has even found time to discuss some of the key aspects of his imagination in today’s exclusive interview – that is, if you manage to look away from his breathtaking artworks.

“We are in the middle of our evolutionary process, just as the toads or the squids. Our shape is temporary.” Matteo Gatti is an Italian artist with focus on unsettling objects and drawings teeming with futuristic and (yet) non-existent lifeforms. Indulge in the visuals and interview with Matteo below.

After years of black-and-white illustrations, Alfred Pietroni found his medium in 3D sculpture. His digital fashion collections now span dozens of looks that hark back to Y2K video game aesthetics while envisioning the future of dystopian fashion. Today, Alfred goes into his process and discusses Exile, his fashion brand in the making.

If 'utopia' is the promise of four-day workweek for some thanks to even more intelligent automatisation of labour, why not let AI do the heavy creative lifting? Welcome to the opening article of our inaugural 2023 theme, TOWARDS TERRA. To match the Midjourney-generated illustrations accompanying the article, we've interviewed the talk-of-the-town app ChatGPT regarding its “opinions” on the future of various artforms