Reuko is a Norway-based new media artist who is driven to explore the vital forces of wind, water, light, and energy that connect all life - stirring currents that are always shifting and alive. His unique blend of landscape cinematography and 3D particle sculptures have immersed millions of viewers on social media in his series titled “Sol Bound.” His creative process is grounded in visceral experience as he travels around the world to film breathtaking landscapes via camper vans, a range of hiking equipment, and aerial photography gear. Constantly expanding his creative language, he then blends drone cinematography with complex particle simulations, photogrammetry, sound design, and compositing to bring these two worlds together into plain sight. The future of his work is focused on bringing these narratives into physical art installations and immersive experiences, taking guests on a journey to bring the soul closer to our natural world. More recently, his works have been showcased at Theater of Digital Art in Dubai, New York Times Square, Tokyo, and his first solo show and artist residency at the acclaimed Frameless Immersive Gallery in London.
How would you describe your artistic practice?
My work explores our relationship with the natural world through filmed landscapes and particle simulations to explore hidden worlds within our own. I spend a lot of time hiking in forests, mountains, rivers, and coastlines, capturing real locations with shifting light and weather. I then use a mix of tools in my studio to reveal forces within the air, water, and flowing patterns that exist around us. Presented through physical installations and spatial experiences, my focus is deep in creating spaces that encourage us and our communities to slow down, reconnect with nature, and reflect on our place within these larger living ecosystems.
How are you using technology to engage with nature?
I feel technology is an extension of human perception and experience. Throughout history, tools have expanded our ability to observe the world, from telescopes that revealed distant galaxies, satellites and cameras that reveal invisible fields of energy and spectrums of light, to microscopes that uncovered entire ecosystems invisible to the naked eye.
In my workflow I have developed around the Sol Bound project, I am capturing landscapes with a range of compact camera drones. This makes it possible to experience these places with a level of intimacy and perspective that would have been difficult to access even 15 or 20 years ago. We can now explore more remote environments, hidden corners of canyons and forests, or confined stretches over rivers and waterfalls from such intimate perspectives that were not possible before.
Technology's presence in our daily lives has many people feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and often it's an entity that has been distancing us from our natural world. However what if we flipped that intention instead? How could these tools be used to deepen our relationship with nature rather than distance us from it? By combining filmed landscapes with visual languages inspired by weather systems, satellite imagery, and natural patterns of movement, I feel there is an endless space to explore these living breathing systems that surround us..
What interests you about working with emerging technologies?
I'm interested in technologies that expand our perception of the world. They create opportunities to explore new visual languages and new ways of experiencing stories, environments, and ideas. I am always checking the pulse on what innovations are on the horizon. As an artist, I'm interested in exploring tools and methods that can inspire wonder, curiosity, and a deeper appreciation for the beauty and fragility of our world.
How do you view the relationship between art and innovation?
I think art and innovation naturally push each other forward. Innovation creates new possibilities, while art explores what those possibilities mean on a human level. Many of the technologies we use today were originally developed to help us better understand our world. As artists, we can take those same tools and use them to create experiences that inspire curiosity, wonder, and emotional connection.
My recent residency of 'Sol Bound I' at Frameless Immersive in London was very experimental for me, moving from a single screen experience to a large-scale multi-wall spatial experience that combined filmed landscapes, particle simulation, projection, sound design, and music. Rather than presenting nature as something to observe, the combined surfaces invited audiences to step inside it, surrounded by it all. This immersive format at Frameless made it possible to create a multisensory experience where moving imagery, sound, and scale worked together to take viewers on a journey into forests, rivers, mountains, and coastlines. After 3 years of filming expeditions across 6 countries, composing this flowing 10 minute journey was about bringing the wild spirit of these environments into the heart of London, creating a space where people could pause, breathe, and reconnect with the natural world.
For me, that's where the relationship between art and innovation becomes most powerful, when it helps create new experiences and storytelling that deepen our sense of wonder, presence, and connection.
What do you want the viewer to take away from your work?
One of my favorite pieces of feedback from the Frameless exhibition came from a guest who told me they had completely forgotten they had just come in from Oxford Street. They had been inside the work for over 30 minutes, didn't realize the piece had been repeating a few times, and had simply become absorbed in the experience. Putting the viewer into a trance, where they are deeply transported into a new place for a moment, where time dissolves, and that feeling continues on within them after they've left.
We spend so much of our lives moving quickly, often disconnected from the environments around us that are essential to our existence. Expanding on this work in future installations and expeditions is where my sights are set now. Bringing in more collaboration with scientists, researchers, technology partners, and other creatives to dive deeper into the narrative, and elevate the impact to restore and protect these vital ecosystems.
