Working group
Our team consists of 3 art professionals, creative technologist and virtual performance artist Erika Rustamova, dance artist and choreographer Johan Högsten, and sound designer Henia Nikkilä.
Johan Högsten(he/him) is a Bachelor of Arts in dance, choreographer, and dance artist based in Helsinki. His first artistic works as a dancer and choreographer were created during his studies at Sibelius Upper Secondary School. During and after his studies in Theatre Academy Högsten has been working as a performer in various dance and theatre productions such as Offering for a Monster choreographed by Tamara Cubas for Julidans 2022, Don Giovanni at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet directed by Jussi Nikkilä and choreographed by Ima Idouzee as well as Phoenix - a deep relaxation serotonin release choreographed by Anna-Maria Häkkinen. Besides working on stage he has actively worked with video art studying the relation of dance and different screens, projections and effects in an attempt to embody the digital and digitize the somatic. His early works include Multiformity (2019), exhibited at the Generation 2020 group exhibition at Amos Rex, and the short film Tulva (2020), created for URB20 Festival.
Henia Nikkilä(she/they) also known as murrettumeri also known as angel xenakis is a sound designer, artist, producer and DJ. Their work has varied from sound designing for contemporary dance in Amsterdam (What can (not) be seen from here by Simone Gisela Weber) to playing music in Tokyo and Warszaw (as part of Fixit, performance by Kaino Wennerstrand) to releasing music on Helsinki and Madrid based labels (Murrettumeri - Back Life, C-cassette and digital release, Interior, 2023). In December 2023 their sound piece is exhibited in a group show in 90mil gallery in Berlin, making it their first abroad exhibition visit. In addition to artistic work and as a member of DJ collective Surrexis, they have been organizing music events in Helsinki and releasing music on World Canvas and Ikuisuus labels. They graduated from theatre academy (Uniarts Helsinki) in Srring 2024 as bachelor of arts.
Erika Rustamova(she/her) is a Master of Arts in New Media, creative technologist, and virtual performance artist based in Helsinki. She has work experience in artistic direction, AV art, and live visuals, as well as 3D design, real-time VFX, and motion capture. One of the key concepts of her artistic practice is world-building. One of her main world-building projects is a series of POST HUMAN DANCE online festivals, that she together with collaborator organized at IMVU avatar chat. They built a whimsical virtual venue, consisting of different stages, that festival goers as well as performing artists could experience in the form of custom-made avatars. This and other similar projects of hers had a goal of breaking the boundary between the virtual and physical realities and bringing them together, which served as a prerequisite to another key method that she is actively using in her practice, mixed reality. She got familiar with the concept of mixed reality through her Master's thesis research on the topic of “Realtime motion capture and game engine technologies in contemporary dance.” Working with this medium strongly affected her artistic practice and easily became a central element of it. On completion of her Master thesis’s artistic research together with her collaborators, Johan Högsten and Henia Nikkilä, they developed their first mixed reality audiovisual dance performance piece ROCK/STAR Vol.1, which premiered on the 20th of May at Odeion Screening Auditorium.