SCENES FROM PARALLEL LIVES — DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

Scenes from Parallel Lives developed gradually over more than a decade through films, music, radio works, comics, video art and research into synthetic identity, mediated culture and human systems of meaning.

The project originated in the mid-2010s through the SYNCANDI comic series and associated transmedia works. Over time, the fictional framework expanded into a wider body of interconnected artworks spanning moving image, sound, sequential art and installation.

Early development drew from research into cybernetics, synthetic biology, robotics, Japanese media culture and speculative fiction. This included field research in Japan, discussions with robotics engineers and anthropologists, and studies of posthuman theory and contemporary science fiction literature.

Prior to the current project structure, Robert Iolini produced two feature-length radio documentaries for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation exploring themes related to posthumanism, identity and technological culture. He also created a commissioned video artwork featuring androids developed by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro at the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory in Kyoto.

Between 2016 and 2017, the SYNCANDI comic series was released as a sequence of ten digital issues accompanied by poster works illustrated by Polish artist Joanna Krótka. During this period, Iolini also composed a series of electronic songs connected to the project and began developing the Ikkyu journal texts that would later inform multiple works within Scenes from Parallel Lives.

From 2018 onwards, the project expanded into collaborative moving-image, sound and installation works involving artists, musicians, photographers, animators and writers across Australia, Japan and Europe. These included the LOVE SONG OF GENEIS RES animated music work, the ACTIVE TEXTS & VIDEO collaboration with Ross Gibson, and the broader i22 installation framework that eventually evolved into Scenes from Parallel Lives.

In 2022, the short film ART e FACT was produced during a residency at L’Estruch, Fàbrica de Creació de les Arts en Viu in Sabadell, Spain. The film later informed the development of Safety Suppression Protocol.

The current project structure consolidates these works into an ongoing modular body of films, music, sequential art, sound works and artefacts presented under the title Scenes from Parallel Lives.