SCENES FROM
PARALLEL LIVES
An ongoing fictional universe unfolding through film, music, comics, and artefacts.
At its centre is an absent figure. Around her, a world has accumulated.
Scenes from Parallel Lives begins with a myth.
Ikkyu — referred to as “I” by those who encounter her — is a mythic dissident. Her history, ideas and cultural traces unfold through the works that surround her: fragments left behind by those who encountered her, through which the influence of a vanished culture is gradually reconstructed.
What does it mean to remain free — in your body, in your mind, within cultures that gradually lose their capacity for self-correction? Open cultures can drift toward systems that suppress error correction. It happens incrementally. What survives that drift is the question the work keeps asking.
The project does not answer. It unfolds through film, music, sequential art, moving-image works and physical artefacts, a fictional archive whose fragments gradually reconstruct a larger imagined history over time.
Science begins with myth. So does this.
SAFETY SUPPRESSION PROTOCOL
SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO. 90 MINUTES
A curator is commissioned to archive a series of underground comics centred on Ikkyu. As she investigates Ikkyu’s story and the transformation required for her to survive and find autonomy, the curator begins to experience her own profound transformation.
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CAFÉ FALLIBLE
SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO. APPROX. 70 MINUTES
Two performers run a cultural sanctuary and space of quiet provocation. When one of them begins receiving information she cannot account for, their work becomes something considerably more dangerous.
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TESTIMONIES
SIX CHANNEL VIDEO. 20 MINUTES
Language: Japanese with English subtitles.
Six fictional interviews with people who claim to have encountered S-humans connected to Ikkyu.
Their accounts form part of an archive documenting the period before the collapse of the Great Dynamic, when these genetically designed humans produced many of the works that survive within the fictional archive of Scenes from Parallel Lives.
SYNCANDI
SEQUENTIAL ART ON PAPER. 10 ISSUES. 163 PAGES.
A sequential art work documenting Ikkyu’s origins and transformation, becoming the foundation for the wider body of works surrounding her.
IKKYU’S JOURNAL
INK ON PAPER. 10 PAGES
Language: Japanese text with English translations available.
Ten dramatic monologues expressing Ikkyu’s psychological journey from imposed design toward autonomous selfhood.
SHODO JOURNAL
INK ON WASHI. 10 PIECES
The shodo works correspond to each entry in Ikkyu’s Journal, transforming the same material into another artistic form.
IKKYU’S JOURNAL SONGS
DIGITAL AUDIO. 30 MINUTES
Ten avant-pop songs transforming themes and fragments from Ikkyu’s Journal entries into a new musical language.
IKKYU SONICS
DIGITAL AUDIO. 20 MINUTES
Seven electroacoustic compositions inspired by the SYNCANDI comics.
GENEIS RES
SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO. 3 MINUTES
An animated artefact inspired by Ikkyu.
CRASH SERIES
PRINTS ON PAPER. 5 PIECES
A photographic series documenting redundant technology during the Great Dynamic.
ACTIVE TEXTS & VIDEO
FOUR CHANNEL VIDEO. 4 MINUTE LOOP
A camera moves through a city, drawn to apparently mundane subjects.
ART e FACT
SINGLE CHANNEL VIDEO. 22 MINUTES
An early iteration of Safety Suppression Protocol. Experimental. Fragmentary. Unresolved.
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ROBERT IOLINI
Robert Iolini is an Australian filmmaker, composer and artist whose practice spans narrative film, music, video art, comics and radio. Across more than twenty years, his work has explored how cultures organise, transform and regenerate meaning through creative forms.
Scenes from Parallel Lives extends this ongoing practice through a fictional universe unfolding across cinema, music, sequential art, moving-image works and artefacts.
His previous large-scale work, the experimental hybrid documentary The Hong Kong Agent, has been presented internationally in Hong Kong, Seoul, New York, Sydney, Locarno and Prague. Its 2022 presentation at M+ Mediatheque, Hong Kong, was withdrawn following a censorship ruling by the Hong Kong Board of Review.
The Hong Kong Agent exists across eighteen short films, gallery installation, radio drama, online interactive works and augmented reality.
Iolini has also released two critically acclaimed solo albums through British avant-garde label ReR Megacorp
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Scenes from Parallel Lives is an ongoing fictional universe developed by Australian artist, filmmaker and composer Robert Iolini over more than a decade.
Beginning as a speculative narrative and sequential art project, the work has expanded into cinema, music, moving-image works and physical artefacts. Each work functions independently while contributing to a larger fictional archive surrounding the figure of Ikkyu, a genetically designed human whose history is reconstructed through the traces left behind by those who encountered her.
The project explores speculative scientific and social histories, including artificial intelligence, synthetic biology and evolving systems of human organisation. Rather than treating these ideas as technological spectacle, Scenes from Parallel Lives uses speculative narratives to examine questions of identity, creativity, consciousness and the ways cultures create, preserve and transform meaning over time.
EXHIBITION POSSIBILITIES
Scenes from Parallel Lives is conceived as a constellation of interconnected works that can be presented as an expanded exhibition environment. Each component functions as a fragment of a larger fictional archive; relationships between films, sound works, sequential art and artefacts gradually reconstruct the wider history surrounding Ikkyu.
Possible presentation formats include:
- Feature film screenings
- Multi-screen installation
- Integrated sound environments
- Listening stations
- Printed artefact and sequential art displays
- Sequential image projection
- Hybrid cinema / gallery presentation
The project is modular in structure and adaptable according to venue and curatorial context. Components may be presented physically, digitally, or entirely screen-based depending on exhibition requirements.
TECHNICAL NOTES
Available formats include:
- HD digital video files
- Digital audio files
- Optional 5.1 audio where applicable
- Digital still images
- Printed materials and sequential works
- Screen-based and physical artefacts
Presentation does not require specialised technology beyond standard video playback, audio systems and exhibition display infrastructure.
The final installation configuration is adaptable and can be developed in dialogue with the presenting venue according to available space, equipment and curatorial requirements.
CONTACT
Robert Iolini : robert@iolini.com
Enquiries regarding exhibitions, screenings and collaborations are welcome.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Scenes from Parallel Lives was created by Robert Iolini in collaboration with:
Joanna Krótka — Illustrator SYNCANDI
Yukiko Sugiyama — Photographer CRASH SERIES
Ross Gibson — Writer ACTIVE TEXTS & VIDEO
Chizu Ikura — Artist SHODO JOURNAL
Nono Nagami — Songwriter LOVE SONG OF GENEIS RES
David Nerlich — Animator LOVE SONG OF GENEIS RES
Additional archival and development notes