IKIGAI

set design • video • design • video mapping

"What happens when we leave the fate of two individuals to a game of survival and the popular vote – cast by the audience."

Theatre play • SLG Celje • 2023

Original idea and play script: Varja Hrvatin
Cast: Maša Grošelj & Aljoša Koltak
Set and video designer, video mapping and visual prep: Anja Romih
Costume designer: Lea Culetto
Composer and technical designer: Jure Anžiček
Application developer: Jurij Smrke
Choreographer: Sebastijan Geč
Language consultant: Živa Čebulj
Production: Slovene People’s Theatre Celje
Logo design: Grupa Ee
Photos: Uroš Hočevar

Design concept & aesthetics

Ikigai is a theatre play inspired by the aesthetics and dynamics of Japanese game shows - vibrant, exaggerated, and playfully absurd. The set and costume design featured bold colors and graphic patterns, evolving throughout the performance to mirror the narrative shifts.

The first act unfolded in an undefined, storage-like environment while the second is transformed into a dazzling game show studio filled with flashing visuals and energetic sound samples, culminating in an audience-participation quiz.

The final act took place in a surreal, patterned space, a “pepita” limbo, where the performers attempted to escape with the audience’s improvised guidance.

My Role:
Set design · graphic design · animation · video editing · video mapping

Designing and animating visual assets (logo animation, transitions, intros, outros, timers, quiz game interface design, other aesthetic set visual elements visuals & design.

Production, video edit & graphic design (various visual insert elements of the two video projected characters).

Tools Used:
Adobe After Effects · Adobe Illustrator · Adobe Premiere Pro · Resolume Arena

quiz game sample animation with timer countdown and logo animation

commentary / replicas samples - appearing on the side screens during quiz game

" What happens when we leave the fate of two individuals to a game of survival and the popular vote – cast by the audience. "

Ikigai is a reality game of fiction. It explores the issues of one’s significance and value. It is a game that tests and examines the boundaries between “fake” and “real”, correct and controversial, the seen and the unseen, as well as between material reality and “dark web”.

It is a performance that intertwines various formats, such as “reality show”, “game show”, quizzes and video games in order to decode what lies behind the collected data of one’s activity that define their individual and social value.

We live in a time in which our online activity is more valuable than our real actions, the surveillance of our personal, banking, health, work, tax and social data dictates and restrains every step of our lives. We are constantly assessed and evaluated in terms of our physical appearance, our fashion sense, our music and reading preferences, our social life, our money spending patterns. Life has been converted into clusters of data on psychological profiles, personalised instructions on one’s point-of-view and supervision.

If one perceives life merely as a game of challenges and tasks for collecting loyalty points in the system of social rules, what is ultimately the most valuable thing in this world to cash in our loyalty points?

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