Davy Smand
White Swans
Davey Smand graduated fine arts at the Minerva Groningen in 2019, in his artistic career he explores the boundaries between magic and technology and combining mythology with technology. Much of his work is influenced by the idea of René Munnik that states: the more rational we place ourselves in the world through science, the more we go back to a mythical world perception.
White Swans is an interactive installation based upon the pre-Christian tradition of Drenthe, a province of The Netherlands. Within this Germanic-Saxon culture man believed that the gods were in the shape of formless energy instead of human form. This energy lived inside trees. Rituals were performed with sacred trees to come closer to the gods.
Within White Swans the spectator wears an EEG-headband that measures brain activity and converts this into sound and video. The visual is projected on a reflective surface that is being moved by a tree – a magical experience.