Mina Amiri Kalvøy

Mina Amiri Kalvøy ☄︎ Artist and writer based in Berlin

Currently teaching Visual & Experience Design MA at the University of Europe for Applied Sciences.

Previously Researcher (Meisterschüler) in Visual Communication at Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin (2022-23). Alumni of Visual Communication MA at Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin (2020-22).

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WARP is the first act of a reading performance by Andrea Felizitas Karch and Mina Amiri Kalvøy. It takes us on the journeys of Ae and Em, who find themselves in worlds that are separate but joint, wandering from one place and time to another. Em, trapped in a digital mirror world seeks a way back, while Ae navigates a disorienting reality resembling ours, only to become increasingly distorted. Through a shared narrative, they encounter various characters one might meet in online forums, on social media and IRL: The Imps, The Gatekeeper, The Guardian and The Jesters. Hidden portals act as gateways and barriers as they try to connect with their surroundings, and each other.

The storyline of WARP is inspired by mirror worlds – representations of the real world in digital forms, conspiratorial shadow worlds and parallel worlds inhabited by our contradictory doubles. When the systems we inhabit close in on us, can we hold space in the stories we tell each other?

WARP premiered in a full Pogo Bar (KW Institute for Contemporary Art) in Berlin in April 2024, with a soundscape composed by Christopher Schmidt. Documentation photos by Zhiyuan Yang, and image visual by Veronika Valtonen.

there was that feeling of the organised chaos that occurs when a group of people scurry around to find a nice, comfortable seat for the hour-long drive when he plumped down next to me. the middle-aged man with shoulder length, black, box dyed hair, who was wearing a white shirt with the top buttons undone, black leather pants and a big leather bracelet with a buckle around his wrist.

he sat down and pulled his laptop up from his bag and i peaked over, couldn’t not. i peaked over and saw that yahoo was his default search engine, i saw him trying in vain to open facebook in his browser, the wifi on the bus didn’t work well enough for him to check the number of notifications and messages that had accumulated from wherever in the world he was traveling from.

i quickly looked out the window to cover for myself, to not linger too long on his bright screen, eyes flickering as they clung to trees, bushes and cars in the dull motorway landscape. grey concrete mixed with the colours of the sunset. i had taken my outerwear off earlier, and was starting to feel the cold draft in the bus.

he opened the notes app and at the end of many other entries he wrote, as a reminder to his future self,

block nancy

“I said: ‘I keep seeing moths everywhere!’” I shouted back. I couldn’t believe I had to repeat myself a third time. They were stopped in their tracks across the street staring at me, not saying a word. Over the last weeks I had been seeing moths all over. A name sign on a neighbour’s door had morphed into a gigantic moth. A smudged out, dusty mark on a wall became a smudged out, dead moth. A piece of paper stuck on the kitchen floor tiles seemed to flutter its wings.
𓆦

I stared back at them, wondering if they still hadn’t heard me. I tried mirroring their body language, to provoke a reaction. I imitated their tilted heads, arms sticking slightly out from their bodies. It had gotten dark enough outside for the street lamps to turn on. In one swift movement they all snapped their heads up towards the glowing light, their necks cracking. With a small jump they flew up towards the bulb. I stood watching them fly frantically into it, the yellow light getting interrupted each time they got close. I sighed and continued on my walk, my foot tripping as I turned around for a second look.

Quest for the Self, 2023

"Quest for the Self" is the second instalment of The Waiting Room (2022-), an ongoing web-based work of interactive fiction inspired by the phenomenon of reality shifting. As with the first instalment in the series (see below), in "Quest for the Self" readers take control of a character in search for something yet to be revealed. Readers enter a chat room and are presented with the character's personal notes, as well as questionnaires and tests from a guide. Can they be trusted?

Web development by David Barriga Ruano, technical support by Nikola Marić.

☍ Link to read – desktop only

The Waiting Room, 2022

The Waiting Room (2022–) is an ongoing web-based work of interactive fiction inspired by reality shifting – a phenomenon described as "transcending" one's consciousness to a desired reality. In the first instalment "The Waiting Room", readers take control of a character lost in the search for entertainment, navigating between rooms through a text-based interface to reveal the character's backstory. Each room's description is randomly generated, ensuring unique play-throughs. When exhibited, a thermal printer makes it possible for visitors to print their story to bring home.

Web development by David Barriga Ruano, technical support by Julian Netzer.

☍ Link to read – desktop only

GAN Metal Logos, 2020

The GAN Metal logos were inspired by the Norwegian black metal greats. 300 existing black metal logos from bands such as Darkthrone and Mayhem were collected and used as a dataset to train a GAN using RunwayML. A set of new, illegible GAN metal logos were generated and later hand embroidered on clothing.

Available upon request, only produced on-demand. Each logo embroidered on a piece of clothing is generated by the GAN and chosen by the artist, making every piece unique.

Grand Opening!, 2021

Grand Opening! is a LARP based on research done on the BER Airport. The airport finally opened in October 2020, 8 years after the initial opening date in 2012. The LARP is inspired by several anecdotes on what happened during those years – such as the dress rehearsals that were held, the people hired to run empty trains and flush airport toilets, and the idea of using students as human fire alarms. Grand Opening! consists of 11 characters, a backstory, campaigns and rules.

50²20¹ Magazine, 2018–19

Co-founder, curator and designer. 50²20¹ is a digital anti-magazine engaging readers in discussions about contemporary societal issues. Issue 1 focused on the topic of surveillance, and is designed as a large single-page PDF with a square ratio, allowing for non-linear reading.

Issue 2 focused on the topic of patriarchy, taking on a broader range of issues and allowing for a larger group of practitioners and responses. Both issues were published and distributed on USBs.

AGI New Members, 2018

Showcases work and interviews from designers who joined the Alliance Graphique Internationale between 2007 and 2017. Assisted with typesetting and editorial work while interning at Berlin design studio hesign.