Vilnius Nightlife Graphics
1992 - 2024

A book documenting the visual aesthetics of Vilnius nightlife over three decades, featuring flyers, posters, and interviews with creators.

Invisible Fungi

Immersive VR instalation showcasing fungi's integral, yet invisible, role in our lives in times of ecological degradation

The Untamed Type

Typography grown with Slime Mold

Universal Explanation of Nothing

Publication exploring the philosophical and complicated idea of nothingness

de_fog

VR intstalation at the Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

New Radicalisms

Branding, motion graphics and graphic design for a four day festival exploring sharded identities, digital realities and cultures of the in-between

If Walls Could Talk

VR intstalation at the Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The Untamed Type

What happens when you let a living organism design type?  The Untamed Typography started from my own curiosity and experimentation with Slime Mold (Physarum polycephalum) and was made as part of my ongoing research into working with living systems in the typography/graphic design context.

This typography is a result of half a year spent getting to know the organism, figuring out what it likes, what it avoids, and learning to grow empathy towards it. The idea was to create a full font, grown letter by letter in petri dishes.  The letters were grown using oats as food, placed in letter shapes. I documented the process by taking over 600 photos during a one month period. From these, I selected the most legible moments of each letter and created type.

At first, I thought I could shape oats into letters and the organism would just follow. But that wasn’t the case. It became more of a negotiation between me trying to guide it, and it doing its own thing. Even if I could anticipate some movements, the final outcomes were unpredictable.

I show the letters I managed to “grow.” I picked the moments where the shapes most closely resembled actual letterforms, and used those as the basis. The type plays with this tension between legibility and chaos, between system and organism. The point was to showcase the letterforms not as fixed, polished results, but as living experiments as appreciation for the process and the organism itself.

Underground. From sweaty basements to hidden mycelium networks, Ringailė explores the unseen and distorts perceptions through entangled artworks. As an interdisciplinary artists, she crafts worlds where fiction meets reality.

CLIENTS

MUSIC: Clone Records, Club Elastica, Digital Tsunami, Herrensauna, Intergalactic FM, Gallery1986, Kablys Club, Live From Earth, Lizdas, Mechatronica, PIP den Haag, Pinkman Records, POING CLUB, Radio Vilnius, Tresor, Wigs

ART: Ars Electronica, Atletika, Het Nieuwe Instituut, LTMKS, MO Museum, Pamėnkalnio galerija, Skalvija, Sodas2123, The Rooster Gallery, V2_

NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS

2023
Best Immersive Application award for Invisible Fungi project | Immersive Tech Week Rotterdam, NL

2023
Most Impactful Project award for Invisible Fungi project | Immersive Tech Week | Rotterdam, NL

EXHIBITIONS

RESIDENCIES & MENTORSHIPS

TALKS & WORKSHOPS

BOOKFAIRS, LIBRARIES & DISTRIBUTION

PRESS

FUNDINGS

2024
Lithuanian Council for Culture | Beginner Creator Stipend in the Field of Design

OTHER

2024
Visuals for the Adventures of Nicole play at the Blue Book Theater | Barcelona, ES

EDUCATION

2024 - present
Master of Music ArtScience (MA)
Royal Academy of Art | The Hague, NL

2019 - 2023
Bachelor of Arts (BA) Design: Illustration
Graduated with Honours Degree
Willem de Kooning Academy | Rotterdam, NL

2008 - 2012
Vilnius Justinas Vienožinskis Art School

WORK EXPERIENCE

Invisible Fungi

In 2023, “Invisible Fungi” won two awards: Best Immersive Application and the Most Impactful project during the Immersive Tech Week in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

“Invisible Fungi” by Ringailė Demšytė is a VR experience that helps to showcase fungi’s integral, yet invisible, role in our lives in times of ecological degradation. The research builds on the artist's previous “Visual Fungi Language” project, which examines a possible, speculative visual language of fungi based on an interpretation of their electrical spiking activity as a means of “facilitating” communication between humans and nonhumans. The project aims to explore the use of different media, such as sound, raw organic materials, and VR, to enable people to experience the unseen world of fungi and foster a greater sense of empathy towards their natural environment. This immersive experience focuses on creating knowledge through feeling by visualising how fungi break down complex organic compounds in a poetic, nearly abstract way. Virtual reality becomes a tool of choice to create a sensitivity around the invisible role of fungi for the city residents who lost touch with nature.

Most fungi operate discreetly, largely unseen by the human eye, as does their transformative work. It typically takes approximately a century for fungi to break down deceased organic matter, such as a tree log. The intricate process of decomposition, executed by fungi, remains invisible to the naked eye. In light of this, the artist has crafted a virtual reality (VR) experience to speed up and encapsulate this prolonged process into a concise two-and-a-half-minute narrative. Through this artistic attempt, the intention is to draw attention to the often-overlooked and imperceptible role that fungi play in nature, emphasising their invisible yet vital contribution to the ecosystem.

Visual Fungi Language:
Exploring the Possibility of Communication Between Humans and Nonhumans

Deriving inspiration from newly conducted scientific research by Adam Adamatzky on fungi’s electrical language, Ringailė explored the potential visual language between humans and fungi by creating barcode-like symbols as a visual representation of the alphabet. This system, known as Visual Fungi Language, draws its foundations from the binary code that underlies nearly all computing technology today.

The barcode-like symbols in Visual Fungi Language bear a resemblance to binary strings, which opens up the possibility of translating them back into electrical signals and sending them to mushrooms. However, at present, this concept remains more of an imaginative speculation focused on the aesthetic experience rather than functionality. While it is intriguing to consider the potential for translating these visual symbols into electrical signals that fungi can understand, it is important to note that this aspect is still largely theoretical.

Sonifying the Speculative Fungal Language: A Journey into Hearing the Unseen

Ringailė assigned each letter of the sentence “We are not alone” to a specific combination of piano keys in her chosen octave, based on the binary representation of the letters. By pressing the corresponding piano keys, she created a sequence of notes that represents the sentence when played on a synthesizer.

She drew a connection between the number of bits in a byte (8 bits) and the number of notes in a solfège scale (including the repeated note at the end). This connection allowed her to map each letter to a unique combination of keys and convert the sentence into a musical composition.

Sonifying the Visual Fungi Language by finding parallels between one bit and an octave set the tone for the final VR work.

Fragrance by Merle Bergers

To enhance the multisensory experience, the “Invisible Fungi” installation incorporates a captivating scent called “Understory.” Created by Merle Bergers, this fragrance is a natural, plant-based room spray that beautifully captures the essence of the undergrowth. It combines elements such as mosses, pine, and earthy notes of Patchouli and Vetiver, resulting in an immersive olfactory experience.

Supervisors

Belle Phromchanya
Sonia de Jager
Carmen José

Technical support

Vincent Boon

Special thanks

Ziemniaki i Foundation
Josh Plough
Natalia Budnik
Adam Markuszewski
Noud Sleumer

(A)WAKE
Shirin Mirachor
Salim Bayri
Reda Senhaji
Isabeau Vienerius

Picture from Trash in the Yard exhibition at Trompenburg botanical garden, taken by Mikolaj Stojanowic, 2022

Visual Fungi Language

New research by Andrew Adamatzky in 2020 suggests that fungi have electrical spiking activity that resembles human speech and can organise up to 50 words into sentences. Yet reacting to Adamatzky’s research on, mycologist Dan Bebber ironically said “that the idea of electrical fungal language 'would require far more research and testing of critical hypotheses before we see “‘Fungus” on Google Translate.” But given the critical role of fungi in ecosystems and the valuable insights they can provide for preventing further ecological degradation, I posed the question: what if we would see "Fungus" on Google Translate? To better comprehend Adamatzky’s research, I decided to visualise it. Upon examining the charts and graphs, an idea occurred to me: if we can translate fungi's electrical signals into binary strings, is it possible to translate them back into electrical signals? I used the Latin alphabet as the most understandable writing system for me and translated it into binary code, which is the foundation of nearly all computing technology today. Since computers are also used to understand the electrical spiking activity of fungi, I thought it would be a good basis for creating a visual language for fungi. To create the language, I developed barcode-like symbols that resemble binary strings and speculated how they could be translated into electrical signals and communicated to mushrooms. I created seven iterations of the visual fungi language in total.

I decided to sonify my fungi visual language based on the first iteration of the visual fungi language since it resembled piano keys. In binary one is on, and 0 is off. I noticed that one byte has the same amount of bits as solfège has notes if you include the repeated note at the scale’s end. I took flat (white, (b)) piano keys in the same octave and pressed same piano keys as ones were located in a byte. In this recording you can hear "this is how visual fungus language sounds like"

Listen Here

Radio Ruins. Lost & Sound Broadcast on Operator Radio accompanied by a physical exhibition at the Time is The New Space. Pictures taken by Mikolaj Stojanowic, 2022

For the second iteration of letters, I wanted to make letter shapes more organic and decided to use circles and bent lines. First, I would draw the Latin letter, and based on the stroke movement, I created a new symbol by using the binary translation of that letter. “0” (zero) would stand for one circle, and “1” (one) would stand for one line in my letter.

Square and circle based symbols felt too artificial and digital for a speculative language of fungi. Mushrooms come in various shapes and forms, so why not use their visual appearance as inspiration?

4th iteration evolved to be a simplified version of the 3rd one. It resembled ancient Irish language - Ogham script. It reminded me of ethnic Lithuanian folk symbols.

For the 5th iteration of the visual fungal language, I thought to convert traditional baltic patterns into readable scripts.

Vilnius Nightlife Graphics 1992 - 2024

Vilnius Nightlife Graphics 1992-2024 is a project documenting the visual history of Vilnius nightlife, preserving traces of more than three decades of culture - flyers, posters and their creators.

The book, consisting of 350 selected visuals and eight interviews with the artists Saulius Ibrasas, Marius Kneipferavičius, Regis Pranaitis, Vygandas Šimbelis, Žilvinas Noriušis, Rasa Špokauskaitė, Domantė Nalivaikaitė, and Gailė Pranckūnaitė, reveals the evolution of nightlife design. It is chronologically organised into thematic chapters that reflect the different stages of Vilnius club culture, from early DIY experiments to the dominance of professional posters and the rise of digital communication.

The project is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, with the assistance of photographer Andrew Mikšys. The book is planned to be published this year or next.

The book is ready. Now we need your help to get it to the printing press. Support it on Kickstarter and share the info with your friends. Every contribution is important. <3

Link to pre-oerder book

Special thanks to Katažyna Jankovska for her proofreading and support.

This book would not be possible withouth the kind help of:

Adomaitis Dovydas
Aerobica Matas
Arklio Galia
Bačiliūnas Mindaugas
Balčiūnaitė Ugnė
Belikov Art
Bernotas Mantas
Blažys Ervinas
Bražiūnas Džiugas
Briedytė Kotryna
Bubinas Evaldas
Burakas Pijus
Bužinskas Povilas
Capablanca Hugo
Chinaskis Henris
Damaševičius Nerijus
Dargytė Meda
Degutis Žilvinas Demšė Vytautas
Demšienė Ina
Dr.Head
Dubauskas Gytis
Dzikaraitė Aistė
Federavičius Juliusfunk crax
Garijonis Martynas
Gasiūnas Paulius
Gavrilovas Mindaugas
Gilys Ramūnas
Giriūnas Romas
Grigaitis Mantas
Griškevičiūtė Morta
Gruzdys Tomas
Gruzdys Vytis
Grybas Sigitas Ignacio Jose
Ilevičius Paulius
Imbrasas Saulius
Jagėla Žilvinas
Jakubka Gediminas
Jankovska Katažyna
Jarowski Karol
Jarušauskas Rolandas
Jasionis Kęstutis
Jautakas Paulius
Jelisejevas Justas
Jurgelis Jogaila
Juršėnas Jokūbas
Juškaitė Emilija
Kačinskas Mindaugas
Kairys Daumantas
Karpavičius Tadas
Kaukėnaitė Dalija
Kažukauskas Daivaras
Kirslys Artūras
Kiškis Lukas
Kiškytė Rūta
Klimaitis Marijus
Klimavičiūtė Akvilė
Kneipferavičius Marius
Kosmosas Mindaugas
Kostikovaitė Justė
Krilavičius Kęstutis
Kunčinas Domininkas
Kurkinas Andrius
Lacey James Laukaitis Antanas
Lėkštutis Andrius
Liaugminas Marius
Linčius Paulius
Lingienė Kotryna
Lozano Luca
Lukoševičius Mantas
Lukova Luba
Mamania Artūras
Mantas T.
Matonis Normantas
Meleškaitė Monika
Miceika Lukas
Mikalajūnė Egla
Mikulskytė Jolanta
MOJO
Morkūnas Mantas
Mrazauskas Tomas
Muromec Ilja
Nalivaikaitė Domantė
Noruišis Žilvinas
Onis Edvinas Orlovas Romanas
Pakarklis Gvidas
Pauplys Povilas
Petreikis Tomas
Pranaitis Regis
Pranckūnaitė Gailė
Pranka Raimondas
Praspaliauskas Egidijus
Praspaliauskas Remigijus
Purvinytė Vilma
Puzyriov Vitalijus
Repšys Mindaugas
Rusteika Martynas
Ryklys Emanuelis
Šafoval Denis
Savickis Martynas
Schenker Olivia
Selenis Imantas
Šimbelis Vygandas
Šimonytė Dovilė
Sinonis Tomas
Skominas Arnas
Soft ParadeSokolov Aljoscha
Solncev Eduard
Špokauskaitė Rasa
Stalnionis Tauras
Stulpinas Rokas
Suraninas Jonas
Syrtha Stasys Žak
Techstylism
Ter Braak Bernie
Tomas Boo
Trakimas Benas
TWODICKS
Ušackas Gediminas
Vaidaugas Vincas
Vaitkus Loranas
Valiulis Marius
Vanderhaghen Benoit
Vasiliūnas Vytis
Ventral is Golden
Verbickas Deivydas
Victor Diawara
Voida Marek Vosylius Tadas
Vuleta-Djukanov Marko
Vyšniauskaitė Lina
Whisper Stevie
Zasčiurinskas Edvinas
Zubrickas Evaldas
Žiogas

Universal Explanation of Nothing

How does one illustrate something that does not exist?
This publication explores the philosophical and complicated idea of nothingness. Inspired by the fact that without zero, modern technology would not exist, I created a fictitious language that is based on the binary notion (a method of mathematical expression that uses only two numbers: “0” and “1”) to explain nothing from a scientific point of view. My goal is to ironically comment on the inefficiency of Carl Sagan’s Golden Record, which went into space onboard Voyager in the 1970s.

The final result was a double bind a5 publication printed with a risograph. One side of the zine serves the purpose of the vocabulary, which is there to help you to decipher information on the black pages.

The Creation of the Symbols

Symbols are created based on the binary translation of a specific word. “0” (zero) would stand for one circle, and “1” (one) would stand for one line in my drawing. For example, the binary translation of intergalactic space consists of a total of 82 zeros and 72 ones, meaning the visualisation of intergalactic space will be made of 82 circles and 72 lines.
‍

Vocabulary

Reading Pages

What is nothing?

What humans declare is or is not is based on how our senses receive the environment.

A completely ‘empty’ box is full of air.

Air consist of the oxygen molecules.

In one cubic meter there is a septillion air molecules.

A Laboratory vacuum on earth has 10 billion molecules per 1 cubic meter.

Interplanetary space has 10 million molecules per 1 cubic meter.

But CERN (in Switzerland) has a better vacuum than interplanetary space.

That makes CERN the most nothing place in the solar system.

If we go to the interstellar space, we are still left with a half a million molecules per 1 cubic meter.

In intergalactic space is hard to find few atoms of anything per 10 cubic meters.

If we remove all of the remaining atoms, we are left with quantum physics.

Quantum physics is not nothing.

In order to have nothing, we have to remove space, time, matter and energy.

But the fact that we can describe it, makes it not nothing.

Picture from from (im)material ruins exhibition, taken by Mikolaj Stojanowic, 2022

de_fog

In this digital collaborative piece crafted by the multi-disciplinary Digital Nostalgia collective, we investigate the ephemeral quality of our media from within the digital sphere. The virtual reality environment of “de_fog” serves as an experience encapsulating a moment of transition in time. All the objects and characters present within the space represent the individual research of the members of the Digital Nostalgia group.

Work shown at the (im)material ruins ehibition, Het Nieuwe Instituut, 2022

Technical leads

Ringailė Demšytė
Johannes Heißenberg
Victoria McGuire
Mikolaj Stojanowicz
ConceptJohannes Heißenberg
Federico Ramírez Hönack
Yasemin Kevser
Mikolaj Stojanowicz
Dasha Starostin
Soundscape
Mikolaj Stojanowicz

3D objects byRingaile Demšytė
Johannes Heißenberg
Eli Hooper
Yasemin Kevser
Kirwin Lonwijk
Victoria McGuire
Hasna El Ouali
Federico Ramírez Hönack
Vera Serlier
Dasha Starostin
Mikolaj Stojanowicz
Vanya Tretyakov
All pictures taken by
Mikolaj Stojanowicz

Screenshot from the VR experience If Walls Could talk shown at Het Nieuwe Instituut during Temporary House of Home exhibition, 2021

IF WALLS COULD TALK

A multimedia installation by (A)WAKE reflecting on a new social fabric woven throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

While many expected an increase in collectivity and solidarity alongside the shared pain of restriction and isolation, differences flourished online. The internet could have been a democratic symphony of a multitude of voices, but instead it became an insular platform for 'the individual'.
Many social justice movements also migrated to the internet, yet it is common for organisations such as Instagram and Facebook to regulate what is shared, how, and to whom. This networked dialogue sometimes results in advice, education and support, but it can also engender collective guilt or outrage. While efforts are made to improve it, performative posturing has become a new social currency in itself.

Instalation If Walls Could talk shown at Het Nieuwe Instituut during Temporary House of Home exhibition, picture taken by Aad Hoogendoorn, 2021

Zawija

Inspired by the saying ‘the walls are closing in', this installation uses virtual reality to confront the visitor with this new social fabric. In the VR experience visitors are first introduced to the confronting and polarising social fabric. As a next step, they get to know about the zawiya (loosely translated as ‘corner’), a Maghrebi and West African term for a place to gather and solve conflicts within the community. Originally associated with religion, it now appears in many functions from the spiritual and the educational to the social and the political. Here, it is a space in which to reflect on – and try to resolve – today's tense and socially alienating climate.

Instalation If Walls Could talk shown at Het Nieuwe Instituut during Temporary House of Home exhibition,video by Ringailė Demšytė, 2021

(A)WAKE

From our home in Rotterdam club space MONO, (A)WAKE provide a platform for in-between voices from multiple cultural backgrounds. Focusing on western Europe, West Asia and North Africa (to which we personally belong), we explore creative and critical approaches that challenge the global north-south power dynamic through art and digital culture.

(A)WAKE collective
Sound design by Reda Senhaji
Technical lead: Ringailė Demšytė
VR design by Ringailė Demšytė and Remi Datora
Guided by Salim Bayri
In collaboration with Muhcine Ennou
Exhibition design by Hanane Mouhdi
Production Tugba Bahceci
Script and text by Shirin Mirachor

The Untamed Type

CLIENTS

NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS

EXHIBITIONS

RESIDENCIES & MENTORSHIPS

TALKS & WORKSHOPS

BOOKFAIRS, LIBRARIES & DISTRIBUTION

PRESS

FUNDINGS

OTHER

EDUCATION

WORK EXPERIENCE

Invisible Fungi

Visual Fungi Language: Exploring the Possibility of Communication Between Humans and Nonhumans

Sonifying the Speculative Fungal Language: A Journey into Hearing the Unseen

Fragrance by Merle Bergers

Visual Fungi Language

Vilnius Nightlife Graphics 1992 - 2024

Universal Explanation of Nothing

The Creation of the Symbols

Vocabulary

Reading Pages

de_fog

IF WALLS COULD TALK

Zawija

(A)WAKE

Visual Fungi Language:
Exploring the Possibility of Communication Between Humans and Nonhumans