Illustrations: Digitonica
Words: Mario Cortese
09 Aug 2021

DIGITONICA

DIGITONICA is a beautifully expressed artist from Samara, Russia. Mostly using ZBrush to sculpt her visions, allowing her to create plastic shapes, DIGITONICA was inspired by Jesse Kanda showing her that 3D art can be very poetic, psychedelic and artistic.

Meet Anna, AKA DIGITONICA. Anna is a 3D Artist and musician based in Samara, Russia and has a very ethereal, interesting style to her work. Her earlier models are surreal, like broken pieces moulded together with metallic skin....Like monuments, statues of sorts but with a living element to them, as if its an organ; almost alive. As you can tell, I quickly became fascinated by her choice of expression and wanted to know if there is a reason for fusing mechanical structures and body-like imagery together?

"I've always liked surrealism and in general, I'm probably more of a fan of art that takes you into fictional worlds than demonstrates reality. I love to see and create things that don't exist. I also like experimenting with this kind of art with the human body expressing various deformations and rethinking of the body. For this purpose, I often use the collage technique.

I am also interested in the interaction of nature and technology, respectively, the body with signs of metal mutations - this is a natural consequence.

I find the pregnant cyborg from"Arca - Non Binary" music video very funny in this perspective. I sometimes like to fantasize about what the people of the future could be like, what they would look like; something shining and brilliant comes to me. However, at the same time, I feel a kind of sentimental breakdown inside, caused by some longing for the old warm and sincere world, which is why, probably, my works bear on themselves in parallel a certain shade of decadence. I am generally very passionate about cyber art, I plan to work on this topic more."

(Copyright © Digitonica)

(Copyright © Digitonica)

In her art, DIGITONIA openly expresses the human body in its natural naked state, not shying away from showing breasts and skin, I wanted to know what pushes her to want to express the body in such a free way.

"I believe that there are many things in the world that are more embarrassing than naked bodies. I like to play with lines and curves, layering the skin for a psychedelic effect. I think that I never cross the line of vulgarity, and this is far from porn. However, a naked body still allows you to create some kind of emotion, at the same time vulnerability and passion. Distorted proportions and multi-layered skin are a way to show some kind of inner instability through the body.

I think that everything should be guided by common sense. Everyone has the right to present himself as they want without violating the freedom of others. However, I don't like it when the authorities invade art, dictating what can and can't be portrayed. For example, the case of Yulia Tsvetkova is indicative in this regard. An artistic portrayal of a vagina is not something worth going to jail for."

I love hearing about new female artists as there tends to be a shortage of woman artists that are highlighted which makes me so excited to present DIGITONICA on my magazine. I wanted to know what she wished to see more of from female in the creative industry:

"Firstly, I want to see more women in art in general. Now the percentage of women in various fields of art is much higher, however, I think the real turning point is still ahead. I think that even now the creativity of women is very diverse, women are engaged in a variety of topics - from abstractions to serious and risky political themes. It's just that women's creativity needs to be shown more often."

DIGITONICA tends to represent bodies in a very blossoming, almost angelic way, multiplying the bodies and overlapping them creating such supernatural imagery, I wanted to know if there is a reason for this other than visual appeal.

"It seems to me that this is a kind of refraction of the old tradition, from the paintings of the old masters - to depict bodies in a kind of angelic form. However, I am adding my glitch style here. It turns out a kind of combination of old and new. In general, I do a lot of things intuitively, and not always there is some idea behind the picture. It can be just a creative impulse to convey some color idea or an idea of some form. In my work, I do something half intentionally, half intuitive. I cannot say that this is a well-thought-out and very conceptual undertaking. In general, I love to see what the brain can create if you allow it freedom."

As evidently seen, DIGICTONICA's art is very ethereal and out of this world making me beg the question; what inspires you to create such supernatural pieces?

"All kinds of things come as inspiration. Sometimes I just see a certain shape, and I want to do the work in that shape. Sometimes I do something for work, some kind of design, and in the process I get an idea for my own work.

I am not an artist by education, I am a musician and I also write music. I'm very passionate about modern experimental electronics, and sometimes I get inspired by the cover aesthetics of various labels like Orange Milk or something. I also really enjoy drawing while listening to music. It often seems to me that music very much shapes the look of my work.

Also, I am constantly studying art from different times, and this, I think, influences my style. And I'm influenced by my social media feed :) Almost all of my friends are talented artists and musicians, and they have something to be inspired by."

"BE PERSISTANT IN PROMOTING YOUR IDEAS"

Anna created a very interesting collection of pieces representing a passport. They were distorted, almost alien, there is a sense of no identity in the art with warped faces, no names or gender and blanked out information. This really caught my eye, is it to represent a personal loss of identity or more of humans change their identity as they get older? I had to know, this is what she said:

"It seems funny to me to watch the authorities' hysteria about the fact that the Internet is uncontrollable. I have always liked the Internet precisely because here you can be unreal and you can be free. For example, I can communicate with a person for a year and not know his real name. And I don't want to know his real name. I communicate with a huge number of people whom I will never see, however, they are absolutely real to me, and I respect their right to be fictional characters, and not themselves with real names and surnames. Maybe I don't even know their faces, and that's okay. It seems to me dense and strange to register with a passport in social networks. Now, neural networks are added to this with their ability to generate an infinite number of absolutely realistic faces. Who are we now? Who is real and who is not?"

DIGITONICA has also dabbled into making 3D fashion on her models. I have always wanted to see more 3D art implemented in fashion marketing posters as I believe it would be amazing to see how creative fashion brands can be in advertising their clothing. I wanted to know what DIGITONICA likes about the fashion industry and what she wishes would change.

"As a person of small income, I never have the means to fully implement my ideas. And tailoring is not a new topic for me. In my life, I have made clothes from the most unimaginable materials - paper, wire, soft glass, spunbond. I alter second-hand clothes. And what a miracle - virtual clothes! You do not need to spend money on materials, you do not pollute the environment, you can create the most wondrous fabrics, silhouettes, just sitting at home. In addition, many clothes are bought simply to be photographed in them once for social networks. It won't be necessary soon. In virtual clothes, I like the line of futurism, clothes that would be infinitely difficult to create in reality."

I see you like to add your visions into photography of real life surroundings, do you see these images in your head when you look around you almost like a third eye or does it come to you after taking the photo when you sit down to create?

"I am very excited about the idea of augmented reality, and I am waiting for the moment when I can, sitting at home in Samara in virtual reality glasses, stay in a completely different place, for example, in Hawaii or on Mars :) Sometimes I see that I want to fit a certain object into the surrounding reality, sometimes I come up with an object by looking at a photograph."

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