Shonee

Canada

Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes, also known as Shonee, is a Costa Rican-Canadian digital artist based in Montreal. A graduate in Film Animation from Concordia University, where she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Intermedia, Shonee develops an immersive practice deeply rooted in her connection to nature. Having grown up on the edge of a tropical rainforest in Costa Rica, she now translates that heritage into virtual worlds populated by hybrid 3D creatures inspired by the shapes and colors of our planet’s flora and fauna. Her work explores how our often narrow and objective human gaze perceives the living world in the age of ecological crisis—while seeking to rekindle a sense of sensitivity and lost connection.

Winner of the Emerging Digital Artists Award from EQ Bank in 2021, she has exhibited her work at renowned venues and festivals such as MUTEK Montreal, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and Filmgate Miami. Among her standout projects are My World, Your Melody (NFB), a choral animation featuring tropical frogs, and LUCA, an immersive VR installation centered around the theory of the Last Universal Common Ancestor, created in collaboration with Jorge Luis García González. Shonee’s distinctive practice blends art, science, and imagination in a continual search for new ways to represent non-human otherness.


Shonee_3D.jpg

Last Species on Earth

Last Species on Earth is a 4-minute looping video installation with an accompanying 17 minute audio piece exploring the tragic beauty of genetically modified organisms. Portaying a future where genetically altered nature is the norm, it visualizes a scenario where animals, through heavy genetic modifications and breeding, have evolved to become accessories to humans. Last Species on Earth follows the story of the last two remaining organisms of their kind (inspired by Donna Haraway’s Companion Species Manifesto) who resemble severely inbred designer animals found within our own world, echoing mankind’s attemps to patent and control life, particularly in the use of GMOS.


Last Species On Earth was created during the “Ecologies & Cosmologies: Themed Commission” residency at Trinity Square Video and has been exhibited at Whippersnapper Gallery (Toronto, CA), Société des arts technologiques (Montreal, CA), and MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina, CA).

technique

3d

format

landscape

duration

03:45

year

2022

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Generative art
Generative art refers to a way of creating artworks using an autonomous system. In digital art, these are usually generated from code and algorithms created by the artist, often with certain predefined parameters or systems. Although these parameters guide the final outcome of the work, generative art is generally a surprising way to create artworks, as the results are often unexpected and the number of possible outcomes can be infinite.
AI
AI art is a branch of generative art that uses artificial intelligence. Unlike other generative artworks, AI artworks use specific complex algorithms and models derived from machine learning. The most common methods for creating AI art today are GANs (generative adversarial networks) or proprietary prompting platforms such as ChatGPT, Sora, Midjourney, or Dall-e.
3D
3D art uses 3D software such as Blender, Cinema4D, Houdini, or video game software such as Unity to create works of art. In 3D works, artists can either arrange assets (the 'objects' in a 3D artwork or world) that they have created themselves or purchased from other creators to create elaborate environments and scenes (an approach to 3D art called 'set dressing'), or specialize in sculpting, which involves creating their own objects and assets.
Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is a specialized 3D technique that allows 3D objects to be created from numerous photographs taken of an object or scene from multiple angles. These photos are then compiled to determine the specific positioning, shape, and dimensions of the object in space, and then converted into a 3D model. Initially developed for engineering and urban planning, photogrammetry has become a way for artists to produce extremely accurate 3D models from real-life images.
Collage
An extension of the traditional, plastic approach to collage, digital collage involves searching for and cutting out multiple images, extracting them from their original context, and recomposing them in a new arrangement to create a work of art. Artists can use their own photographs or find images on the internet.
Illustration
Digital illustrations are created using software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Procreate. As with drawing on paper, the artist uses a stylus to sketch a figure or object, usually on a tablet, to construct a scene or artistic universe. Unlike traditional drawing methods, digital illustration is much more forgiving, as mistakes can be easily corrected and drawn elements and objects can be easily moved around within a scene.
Video
Video artworks primarily use a recording camera, but may sometimes include additional post-processing or editing to distort, modify or add additional elements to the image. Some artists use state-of-the-art recording equipment to create macro zoom-ins or time lapses, privileging fidelity to the subject matter. Others use additional softwares to significantly modify or warp the video, creating an alternative perspective on the world that surrounds us.

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