Romeo Roxman Gatt is a multidisciplinary artist. His work encompasses performance, text, painting, video, sound, photography, and sculpture which all play a role in his engagement with questions concerning sexuality, identity, and gender. He is also interested in documenting and archiving trans and queer experiences and is the co-founder of the first queer-focused project space and contemporary art gallery in Malta called Rosa Kwir. He has an Master’s degree in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art and was a former associate artist at Open School East. Recent Exhibitions include: White Sea Olive Groves, Malta Biennale, 2024. Gatt lives and works in Malta.

Costas Kazantzis My work is centered around the exploration of innovative avenues within the realm of game engine technology, 3D design, and extended reality (XR), with a specific emphasis on their transformative potential for fashion and art content dissemination. My investigations delve into the intricate interplay between human experience and interconnected cyber-physical ecosystems, examining how the bounds of creative expression expand into uncharted territories previously deemed impossible.

HOW IS YOUR WORK INFLUENCED BY THE CIRCA 2024 MANIFESTO?
In these challenging times, we must see digital platforms as vehicles for communication and creative exchange. It is crucial to develop discourse around our representation within these 3D tools and how we interact and experience life within them.

As a transgender person I try to live as authentic as possible but our society doesn’t make it that easy. The architecture, the materials that dictate it, the language along with other things carries the history of the past, which is still very much present today. How can I become true to myself, work on authenticity, access the future when I live in a society and an environment where it is still comfortable to live in this patriarchal, capitalist infrastructure?

Game engine tools offer pathways to form decentralised online spaces that amplify marginalised voices. “Wishing” explores the concept of shifting the music video format into an interactive medium, transforming it from a passive video experience into an immersive, participatory one.

WHAT WOULD YOU CREATE/DO WITH THE £30K CIRCA PRIZE?
We propose designing a fully interactive performance experience within the video game Fortnite. Our approach involves deconstructing traditional gaming mechanisms, which typically rely on conservative frameworks of instant gratification and purpose-driven UX design. Instead, we aim to create interactive 3D spaces influenced by queer dynamics and non-conforming ways of interaction.

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