Au(c)tor

Au(c)tor: author, originator, traveller

“Au(c)tor” is a project by Oskar Chmioła about the creative process, the exploration of one's own identity and the artist's responsibility. It brings together film, performance, painting, sculpture, literature, music and digital media. At its centre is the journey of Auctor: a protagonist embodied by the author, and a figure of the creator who puts his own habits, ideas and ways of working to the test.

The Latin word auctor evokes meanings associated with a creator, originator, initiator and authority. Its relationship to the verb augere —to enlarge, multiply, add—allows the title to be read as a question about what creative work brings to the experience of the author and other people. In this understanding, the creator adds value to the world: he develops his own knowledge, awareness and abilities, enriches culture and inspires others to explore. Throughout this account, “Au(c)tor” denotes the project and the book of the same title; Auctor is the name of the protagonist.

The project's guiding idea is the author's conviction that an artist remains a creator for as long as he creates, and ceases to be one when he begins to replicate his own achievements and ways of making. In this artistic credo, the creator remains an eternal traveller: reaching an ultimate destination would make him someone else. Auctor therefore returns to questions he has apparently already resolved and leaves places that offer him a ready-made identity. The ideal remains the horizon of the journey: arriving at one form does not end the work, but reveals the possibility of another.

The journey has psychological, existential and social dimensions. Joseph Campbell's monomyth provides a pattern of calling, trial and return, while Jungian individuation offers a language for encounters with different aspects of one's own psyche. The artist transforms these inspirations into his own concepts of Psychoperformans and IndywiduAkcja. He does not illustrate a single theory step by step; he builds his own narrative from images, actions, characters and spaces.

Technology is an important context: artificial intelligence, language models, simulations and virtual reality. In the book, they take the form of a fantastical threat to human independence; in the project's digital dimension, they can serve to construct spaces, narrative variants and interactions. Juxtaposing these functions raises the question of when a tool expands the creator's possibilities and when it encourages him to surrender the initiative.

The relationship between action, film and the process of making a work connects the project to the author's Performative Cinema Manifesto. “Au(c)tor” develops these concerns by making the artist's work both the subject of the narrative and the means of producing it.

Method: action, self-portrait and narrative

The author acts as creator, director, performer and protagonist. His body becomes both a working instrument and an element of representation. Drawing, painting, sculpture, graphic art, photography, animation, choreography, performance, poetry, music and programming are used to explore different dimensions of the same experience. Successive actions produce images and objects that subsequently return to the narrative as traces of the journey.

Psychoperformans is the author's term for actions combining bodily expression, symbol, ritual and introspection. IndywiduAkcja names the translation of the idea of individuation into a concrete gesture and artistic event. Fears, phobias, prejudices, egocentrism and inner conflicts take the form of scenes, figures or spaces. In this narrative, “emerging from the underground” means gradually recognising what has remained hidden. The author's use of the term self-therapy describes a personal intention to work through experience by means of art; it is not the name of a validated treatment method or a claim of clinical effectiveness.

The psychological, philosophical, scientific and spiritual concepts invoked below constitute artistic material. Their combinations and associations with objects are the author's own. This account develops the project's premises and interpretation; it does not present empirical research findings.

The self-portrait is not limited to physical resemblance. It encompasses the way one tells one's own story, the body's behaviour, the choice of materials and encounters with figures embodying psychological tensions. Film allows this work to unfold over time: it juxtaposes action with its image, narrative with documentation of objects being made, and the sequence of events with flashbacks, dreams, visions and stream of consciousness. Michael White's narrative practices, discussed in Maps of Narrative Practice, also inspire this retelling of one's own experience.

The project has an intermedial dimension where image, sound, movement and space jointly produce a single event, with meaning emerging from their interaction. It also has a transmedial dimension: the film, book, objects and website develop distinct, complementary parts of Auctor's world. These two terms describe different relationships. The presence of several media does not necessarily mean they are integrated intermedially, and transferring the same material to another platform does not in itself create a new part of the story.

The autoethnographic perspective here involves working with one's own experience in its cultural and social surroundings. The practices of Marina Abramović and Joseph Beuys provide a context for reflection on the body, action and the expanded field of art. Meanwhile, the historical idea of the total work of art, Gesamtkunstwerk, helps frame the question of how the individual media relate to one another and how each reveals a different dimension of the author's identity.

The audience does not need to retrace all the author's references to enter the project. Viewers can follow the narrative, pause at a single object or compare several versions of the same motif. The exhibition labyrinth, the model and the website envisage different ways of finding one's bearings in this space. Their meaning derives both from the planned relationships and from the route chosen by the viewer.

Forms and objects in the cycle

The premises of “Au(c)tor” describe the following interrelated forms and objects. Some function independently; others form part of the film, exhibition or digital environment. The list of objects — text file — remains a supplementary resource for the project.

1. Film. A feature-length fictional narrative about individuation and the contemporary condition of the artist, realised through performative actions. It also has a mockumentary dimension: it incorporates the making of the cycle's other components into a constructed narrative. Auctor's struggles concern his identity and place in society. Objects appearing in the film retain their status as individual artworks; in one of the final scenes, they are presented as an exhibition.
2. The book “Au(c)tor”. A fantasy journey narrative combining the motif of individuation with a critique of dependence on artificial intelligence, language models and virtual reality. The protagonist confronts a plague of alien beings that perform services for people, extracting their energy, abilities and information about them in return. This mechanism raises questions about the price of convenience, consciousness, creativity and the loss of agency.
3. Long poem. A metaphorical story of transformation that uses myths, archetypes and inspirations drawn from Jungian individuation as literary material.
4. Computer simulation. A virtual, interactive space of the psyche resembling a geological landscape. Its zones are projected onto a human silhouette, allowing viewers to explore a symbolic topography of the inner world.
5. Video performances. Recorded actions in which the author addresses inner conflicts and transformations associated with individuation. The recordings are an integral part of the cycle.
6. Digital artwork about conformity. A collage showing the stage at which the protagonist submits to social norms and expectations, and their influence on his capacity for self-realisation.
7. Surrealist video. The psychotic visions of a protagonist confronting his inner demons. Within the plot, these metaphorical images of chaos and disintegration precede spiritual renewal.
8. Sculptures, drawings and photographs. Depictions of characters and figures encountered along the way, including the Shadow, Animus and Persona. Different media reveal different aspects of their presence.
9. An exhibition in the form of a labyrinth. An exhibition connecting the cycle's works into a spatial narrative of individuation. Moving between the works, viewers become participants in this journey.
10. An installation of planes of movement. An arrangement inspired by Rudolf Laban's concepts, using the sagittal, horizontal and vertical planes as a starting point for the author's own representation of creative attitudes.
11. Abstract and conceptual objects. Works addressing patriarchy and the Anthropocene, dominant social structures and their impact on the individual, the environment and creative work.
12. Meditative paintings. Works inviting contemplation, stillness and reflection on the search for inner balance.
13. Paintings of contrasts. Intense colours and forms serve to depict the protagonist's inner struggle and rebirth.
14. Erotic digital artwork. Juxtapositions of figures adopting prayer or meditation poses with erotic images. They explore the tension between physicality and spirituality.
15. Minimalist forms and sounds. Means of expression accompanying the experience of emptiness during difficult moments of the journey.
16. Fantastical landscape painting. Images of inner spaces that Auctor reaches in the course of his transformation.
17. Ritual paintings and music. Works evoking fundamental values and contact with nature as part of Psychoperformans.
18. Opus Tower. An installation with a deconstructive character: an arranged setting suggesting Auctor's temporary shelter, containing artefacts found during his wanderings. The accumulated traces connect the resting place with the process of self-knowledge.
19. Full-length self-portrait. A gradually developed image of the body as a map of individuation. Its individual zones are inhabited by figures with which the protagonist works.
20. Textual and graphic maps. Computer graphics superimposing the stages of individuation on the human figure and assigning them symbolic locations within the body.
21. Musical compositions. Compositions accompanying successive stages of the journey, drawing on a set of tones known as Solfeggio frequencies. Their connections with transformation have symbolic and compositional significance within the project.
22. Website. An interactive space for exploring the components of the cycle and the stages of individuation associated with them.
23. Model of the Realm of Opus. A model of the symbolic inner space that also serves as a game board. Figurines of the protagonist and his companions make it possible to represent the course of the journey on a material scale.
24. Further objects. The cycle remains open to works made during subsequent phases of the process. Objects incorporated into it develop its narrative and the relationships between media.

Individuation and the construction of one's own narrative

Jungian individuation is the project's central psychological reference point. It involves working on the relationship between conscious and unconscious aspects of personality, and on its differentiation and integration. It is accompanied by the concept of the collective unconscious, with which Jung associated archetypes. “Au(c)tor” uses this model to construct its own narrative of recognition, confrontation and transformation.

The Persona relates to the image presented to others and to social roles; the Shadow to what is rejected or unrecognised; Anima and Animus evoke the Jungian language of ideas about femininity and masculinity; the Self defines the symbolic horizon of wholeness. The author works on harmonising these inner opposites and on their influence on his creative practice and relationships with others. The Great Mother and the Wise Old Man extend the repertoire of figures. References to Man and His Symbols and Psychology and Alchemy help identify the language of images that the project develops through successive actions.

Auctor also encounters mythological, biblical, literary and author-created characters, as well as places and states to which the author assigns the function of stages. In this composition, archetypal figures stand alongside other cultural motifs and the artist's own constructions. The list of twenty-eight stages below connects their symbolic meanings with the protagonist's concrete actions.

Film and book use dreams, fantasies, imaginings, defence mechanisms and conflicts of desire as narrative material. Freudian inspirations concern the question of the unconscious and the possibility of articulating difficult experiences. The historical concept of abreaction, or emotional release, helps name the intention to express repressed emotions. The inspiration drawn from White's narrative practices directs attention to how a change in one's story about oneself affects the understanding of one's situation. Art allows the author to give fears and traumatic experiences a form with which he can continue to work.

Further contexts include James Hillman's archetypal psychology, Erich Neumann's reflections in The Origins and History of Consciousness, Marie-Louise von Franz's interpretations of fairy tales and dreams, and Abraham Maslow's concept of self-actualisation. Each context emphasises a different issue: the multiplicity of psychic images, narratives of the development of consciousness, the role of storytelling, or the realisation of one's possibilities. Stanislav Grof appears as a reference for transpersonal experiences and altered states of consciousness. These different perspectives extend the language of personal interpretation of experience.

Here, working on identity does not lead to an unchanging self-image. Auctor revises his beliefs, values and methods, and every closure generates new questions. Contact with the unknown may mean both moving beyond personal fears and encountering another person's perspective. In this sense, individuation remains an open practice of recognising relationships, rather than isolation within a perfect self-portrait.

Journey, ritual and identity in culture

In Bohater o tysiącu twarzy (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949), Joseph Campbell describes a journey pattern encompassing departure, trials and return. “Au(c)tor” uses this model as a narrative tool: a call leads to crossing the threshold, initiation and transformation, after which the protagonist returns to the world. At the same time, the project questions the possibility of bringing this journey to a definitive end. The return does not entirely restore the former order; it can become the beginning of another cycle.

The anthropological context is provided by Arnold van Gennep's The Rites of Passage (Les Rites de Passage, 1909): separation from the existing order, a transitional phase and reincorporation. In Auctor's actions, separation involves leaving familiar roles, transition involves uncertainty and trial, and return involves the need to relate the transformation to other people. Ritual images, music and gestures of cleansing give form to experience.

Victor Turner, referenced through The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (1969), extends the question of being “in between”. Liminality concerns the transitional phase of ritual, while the later concept of the liminoid helps examine selected, voluntary forms of experimentation characteristic of art and leisure in modern societies. In “Au(c)tor”, these concepts describe the suspension of ordinary rules and the possibility of trying out a different position towards oneself and the collective: uncertainty, creative chaos, the risk of crisis and the freedom to experiment.

Claude Lévi-Strauss provides two distinct contexts contained in Structural Anthropology: an analysis of relationships between the elements of myth in The Structural Study of Myth and a reflection on the effect of symbols in The Effectiveness of Symbols. The Savage Mind also foregrounds an interest in ordering the world through available signs and materials. In the project, figures, props and events form a network of relationships. References to magic and ritual make it possible to ask about the role of symbols in organising experience and giving form to inner conflicts.

The stories of Odysseus and Abraham introduce different models of going beyond the known. In the author's interpretation, Odysseus signifies curiosity, wandering and the difficulty of returning; Abraham signifies trust, sacrifice and a radical decision. This is a selection of particular aspects of these characters. Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno's critical reading of Odysseus, associated with instrumental rationality and cunning, provides a counterpoint. The literary contexts of the journey are extended by Dante's Divine Comedy and Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse.

The historical search for cultural patterns in Leo Frobenius and Adolf Bastian provides a context for encounters with motifs from different traditions. The author looks for shared experiences within them, juxtaposing them with his own situation. Dialogue with ancestors, mythology, history and literature becomes a way of working on the individual's position in relation to collective memory.

The protagonist's identity emerges in this dialogue. Paul Ricoeur makes it possible to consider it as narrative identity, constructed through a story of continuity and change. Judith Butler directs attention to repeated actions and norms that help shape identity; in this account, performativity is not simply a synonym for artistic performance. These perspectives help ask what Auctor chooses, what he has inherited and which roles he can transform.

Images, signs and open interpretation

The mask, labyrinth, map, shadow and Realm of Opus form the project's language. Their meaning depends on their place in the narrative, material, scale and relationships with other elements. A mask can protect, impose a role or reveal the desire for a particular image; a labyrinth can impede orientation while also allowing one to choose a path. The author describes this heterogeneous, multilayered network as a topological space: connections and passages between its areas become significant. An image therefore cannot be reduced to a label that need only be read once.

Ferdinand de Saussure's distinction between signifier and signified helps separate a sign's form from the concept with which it is associated. In Mitologie (Mythologies, 1957), Roland Barthes shows how signs can participate in the creation of myths that present historical and social ideas as self-evident. Myth functions here as a secondary order of meaning. Advertising, fashion, sport and the press form a backdrop to questions about similar mechanisms in ideas concerning art, success and authenticity.

“Au(c)tor” engages with these myths within its own field. It juxtaposes the artist as craftsperson, Romantic genius, researcher and experimenter, without establishing one image as binding. The making of a work may involve ordering, but also chaos, rejection of a form and destruction of an earlier solution. A critical reading therefore also concerns the way the author represents himself.

Barthes's The Death of the Author (1967) opens the question of the reader's participation in producing meaning, while Michel Foucault's essay What Is an Author? (Qu’est-ce qu’un auteur?, 1969) asks about the function of authorship in organising and circulating discourse. In “Au(c)tor”, the artist is present as body and character, and meanings arise in the relationship between him, the work and the audience. Quotations, allusions and references to other works create an intertextual space in which viewers can also recognise relationships not anticipated by the creator.

Jean-François Lyotard's Discours, figure provides a reference for the tension between the order of discourse and the figural. The terms image-figure, form-figure and matrix-figure invoked in the project receive the author's own associations: the first concerns sensory perception, the second the intellectual processing of perception, and the third the transcendental dimension of self-awareness. Within the project, this arrangement organises the relationship between the visible and invisible and the limits of knowledge. Lacan's interest in the relationship between language and the unconscious, in turn, provides a context for interpreting words, gaps and repetitions.

Jacques Derrida draws attention to trace, difference and the deferral of meaning, articulated in the concept of différance. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari introduce a different language: desire as production, relationships and multiple connections, described, among other things, through the figures of “desiring-machines”. In this perspective, Auctor is treated as a “desiring-machine” whose subjectivity becomes layered and reconfigured in successive relationships. Schizoanalysis was developed in Anti-Oedipus; A Thousand Plateaus extends the later context of their collaboration. Within the project, these references inspire nonlinear composition, branching and shifts in viewpoint.

Hans-Georg Gadamer and Truth and Method (Wahrheit und Methode, 1960) help frame interpretation as a dialogue with a work, conducted from a particular perspective and changing through the encounter. Ernst Cassirer extends this context to the symbolic forms through which culture organises experience. In Adorno, a critical resistance to the easy reconciliation of contradictions remains important: a work can reveal tensions that an aesthetically attractive image cannot resolve. These references support an open reading and the possibility of asking questions anew.

Agency, responsibility and audience participation

Artistic autonomy does not remove responsibility for the representation of other people or for the situation into which an audience is invited. “Au(c)tor” addresses the tension between freedom to experiment, social expectations and respect for another person's autonomy. It asks about an action's consequences and its form without establishing a single moral rule that would settle every conflict.

The existential contexts of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus direct attention to freedom, responsibility, absurdity and solitude. Describing the artist as homo solitarius —a solitary human being—names the experience of working in isolation. Isaiah Berlin helps distinguish questions about freedom from constraints and the possibility of directing one's own life. Foucault, in turn, recalls the role of norms, discourses and power relations in shaping what an individual regards as a free choice.

Hospitality, discussed by Derrida in works including Of Hospitality and Acts of Religion, makes it possible to move from working on oneself to encountering the Other. The host's openness remains in tension with the boundaries established within their own space. For Auctor, receiving a guest means attempting to relinquish complete control over the situation. In creative practice, the author also relates this openness to unexpected impulses and inspirations. For the exhibition and website, this problem becomes a question of whether viewers can genuinely choose their mode of participation and their own interpretation.

Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Bourriaud (Esthétique relationnelle, 1998) provides a context for considering the artwork as a situation of interpersonal relations. Claire Bishop's critique of participatory art also asks about the quality, conditions and conflicts of that participation. In “Au(c)tor”, the labyrinth, the model of the Realm of Opus, performative actions and the digital environment can be read through the decisions they enable and the demands they place on an audience. Both the performed gesture and the network of relations in which the encounter takes place matter.

The author's relationship with the audience also concerns authority. Max Weber's discussion of charisma in Economy and Society (Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 1922) helps raise questions about an individual's particular power of influence. The project assigns the creator the role of guide, mentor and leader in the realm of his own identity and creative practice. His authenticity is intended to inspire others to develop, while his influence on interpretations and values entails responsibility for this relationship.

Digital technologies introduce disputes over authorship, originality, reproduction and the extent of control over the process. Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction provides a historical reference point for changes in the presence and circulation of artworks. Artificial intelligence raises further questions about creative contribution, material sources, intellectual property and rights to the result. In this debate, “Au(c)tor” defends the human role as author and originator.

In the fantasy narrative, technology promises convenience in exchange for human resources. In creative practice, it can assist programming, simulation and the generation of variants, but it also carries the risk of dependence on ready-made solutions. The author fears the loss of human imagination, intelligence and sensitivity as successive areas of activity are handed over to machines. His position is clear: the algorithmic production of content will not replace the lived, embodied experience, consciousness and reflection that he regards as the foundations of authentic art.

Horkheimer and Adorno's critique of the culture industry directs attention to commercialisation, celebrity culture and pressure to repeat a recognisable formula. Auctor confronts the temptation to consolidate his own brand at the expense of risk. This is not a simple opposition between the market and authenticity, but a question of whether successive decisions arise from working on the artwork or solely from the expectation of predictable success.

The themes of patriarchy, the Anthropocene and social, cultural and ecological crises extend responsibility beyond the author's biography. Art can make these tensions visible and create conditions for conversation, without having to promise their resolution. Inviting viewers to treat their own lives as a space for creative decisions remains a proposition they can take up on their own terms.

Cognitive processes and styles of creative work

Creative work requires the coordination of perception, imagination, working and long-term memory, abstract thinking, problem-solving and decision-making. In “Au(c)tor”, questions about these processes are connected with movement between media. Analogy and metaphor allow a problem to be transferred from image to movement or from text to space; flexibility also means recognising the moment when an existing strategy stops working.

Michael Kirton's distinction (1976) between adaptation and innovation concerns styles of problem-solving, rather than levels of creative ability. An adaptive style tends towards methodical improvement of existing structures and the pursuit of efficiency, stability and predictability; an innovative style tends towards questioning assumptions, initiating new solutions and restructuring. In the project, both can describe necessary approaches: working with the limitations of material and being ready to change one's assumptions.

The state of flow —a sense of flowing—described by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (1990) provides a context for reflecting on concentration and absorption in an activity. It raises questions about the relationship between challenge, skills, satisfaction with work and the experience of time. While liminality describes a position within a process of transition, flow concerns the quality of subjective engagement. Erik Erikson, referenced through Dzieciństwo i społeczeństwo (Childhood and Society, 1950), introduces a perspective on the development of identity and self-worth in relation to one's surroundings.

The project's premises also include a repertoire of tools for describing preferences, strengths, roles and creative thinking. They offer contexts for possible reflection on individual resources, cooperation, areas for development and adjusting one's way of working to the work environment. Their use as research instruments would require a separately designed procedure.

• Roger James Hamilton's Talent Dynamics —a commercial system for describing talents and working styles, directing attention to how an individual functions within a team.
• CliftonStrengths, associated with the work of Donald O. Clifton—a tool for describing strengths and talents, prompting questions about the resources used in work.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) —a tool inspired by Jung's typology that uses four pairs of preferences, including those concerning perception and decision-making.
• Belbin Team Roles —a model of nine roles describing ways of contributing to a team's work. It supplements the question of cooperation with a perspective distinct from Kirton's styles of adaptation and innovation.
• Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking —a repertoire of tasks concerned with dimensions of creative thinking such as fluency, flexibility, originality and elaboration.
• Insights Discovery —a commercial system for describing communication preferences, using the metaphor of four “colour energies”.

Neuroplasticity, neurobiology, information theory and consciousness research appear as further fields of reference. They direct attention to the biological foundations and evolutionary roots of creativity, and to the relationship between creative activity and the development and functioning of the brain. At the conceptual level of “Au(c)tor”, they serve to formulate questions and analogies.

Movement and the geometry of the creative process

The body allows concepts to be translated into direction, weight, rhythm and a relationship with space. Inspirations drawn from Rudolf Laban organise this area through planes of movement. The sagittal plane combines front–back and up–down directions; the horizontal plane combines front–back and right–left; the vertical plane, understood here as the frontal plane, combines right–left and up–down. Their use in the installation extends beyond anatomical illustration: they become a framework for the author's own symbolism.

Within the project, forward movement in the sagittal plane signifies initiative, courage, expansion and the risk of moving beyond one's own limitations; backward movement signifies reflection, introspection and the integration of knowledge with experience. The vertical plane is associated with strength, decisiveness and the expression of identity. Upward movement symbolises higher goals and spiritual and creative aspirations; downward movement signifies grounding and contact with reality; right–left represents the search for a balance between personal and social development, intuition and logic. The horizontal plane signifies dialogue, the exchange of ideas and cooperation: reaching out to other people, cultures and disciplines, and confronting one's discoveries with the audience's interpretation.

The icosahedron, a twenty-faced solid used as a model for organising directions within the kinesphere, becomes a spatial construction for exploring expressive possibilities. The author assigns it the symbolism of fullness in movement, physical and spiritual wholeness, and harmonious integration of the personality. The geometrical model and the metaphor of the body's ideal space form two coexisting orders within this image.

A second reference point is Point and Line to Plane by Wassily Kandinsky (Punkt und Linie zu Fläche, 1926). The author of “Au(c)tor” develops his own connection between geometry and the rhythm of work, distinguishing three moments:

1. Acute angle: impulse. Concentration, inspiration and belief in the possibility of action. This moment resembles the call in the story of the hero's journey: a direction emerges, but its consequences remain unknown.
2. Right angle: realisation. The encounter between an idea and the limitations of material, technique, time and one's own psychological capacities. Discipline, organisation and decisions become necessary; enthusiasm alone cannot replace them.
3. Obtuse angle: reflection. A widening of perspective after the work is done, allowing new interpretations, satisfaction and disappointment. Considering the result initiates revisions or another cycle of exploration.

This tripartite arrangement devised by the author and inspired by the language of forms can be set alongside departure, transition and return. Auctor's movement also includes pauses, reversals and re-entry into the phase of action. Geometry makes its rhythm legible while preserving the dynamics of individual experiences.

Maps of the body, sound and spirituality

The full-length self-portrait is both a painted image of the author and a map of inner space. Texts, signs, zones and figures encountered in the narrative are superimposed on the body. The body gives a common outline to relationships drawn from different traditions and conceptual repertoires: the aura, chakras, meridians, maps of consciousness and the Kabbalistic Tree of Sefirot.

In the symbolic language invoked here, the aura and chakras refer to the imagined energy body and its centres; meridians refer to channels of energy flow in traditional Chinese medicine; and the Tree of Sefirot refers to the spiritual structure and emanations of divinity in Kabbalah. References to Hindu and Buddhist traditions, Chinese medicine and Jewish Kabbalah form an arrangement of comparisons within the project. Terms drawn from Jung, Lyotard or Saussure and placed on the body extend this composition with different ways of representing experience.

Tones known as Solfeggio frequencies are treated in a similar way. They establish a musical and symbolic order within the cycle. The following associations retain the meanings adopted by the author:

The names of brain-activity frequency bands—beta, alpha, theta, delta and gamma—introduce another repertoire of references. They accompany an interest in wakefulness, concentration, relaxation, meditation, deep sleep and the experience of transcendence. EEG bands and the audible tones of a composition belong to different phenomena; within the project they jointly form an artistic map of changing inner states.

Inner space is also described through the arrangement of body, mind and soul, and through an alternative division into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual spheres. The four elements—earth, water, fire and air—provide material for images and actions. Solid, liquid, gaseous and plasma states appear as a separate analogy of change. Juxtaposing these orders develops metaphors for the dynamic nature of experience.

In this language, transcendence means an artistic striving to go beyond ordinary ways of perceiving and understanding oneself. The difficulty of expressing such an experience motivates working across multiple media. Questions of embodiment and being in the world intersect here with inspiration from Heidegger. Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and the concept of the noumenon—a thing thought outside the conditions of sensory cognition—provide a context for considering the limits of knowledge. The project asks what can be imagined and expressed artistically at the limits of an ordinary description of experience.

David Bohm and Wholeness and the Implicate Order (1980) appear as a poetic inspiration through the idea of a relationship between what is revealed and what is hidden. The language of wholeness, hidden dimensions and nonlocal connections stimulates the author's imagination, opening the possibility of representing alternative creative and personal paths.

Journey, time and return

Auctor's journey leads through his own imaginings and limitations towards a readiness to encounter what is other. Its direction, however, is not a simple line of ascent. Recurring figures and places change meaning because the protagonist relates them to experiences he had not previously had. Departing from the Persona does not remove the need for social contact, and encountering the Shadow does not guarantee lasting release from conflict.

The image of the asymptote serves the author as a metaphor for approaching an ideal without definitively completing the journey. A momentary proximity to wholeness allows him to perceive further layers of the Shadow that require more work. Philosophical contexts include becoming and change, invoked in relation to Hegel, and Nietzschean self-overcoming, the will to power and eternal recurrence. The author reads the will to power in relation to creative development and moving beyond one's previous form of self. From these different perspectives, he asks about successive cycles of creativity.

Returning to the studio may mean rest, ordering traces and preparing the next action. It may also turn into a refuge from change. This ambivalence of return allows “Au(c)tor” to be read alongside the journeys of Dante or Hesse, and in dialogue with Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Also sprach Zarathustra, 1883–1885). The protagonist needs somewhere to return to, but should not mistake safety for the end of his search.

Time is both the subject and the material of the film. Flashbacks, dreams, visions and stream of consciousness interrupt the progression of the journey. The past appears within present experience and is reinterpreted; the future operates as the imagining of a possible outcome or a fear of it. Juxtaposing these orders reveals how memory and expectation participate in present action.

Editing organises time differently from the body performing an action. Acceleration can condense the work and make its rhythm visible; slowing down can hold attention on a gesture, the resistance of material or a change in tension. Repeating a scene allows successive readings to be compared, while longer duration requires a different kind of presence from the viewer than a rapid sequence of images. The relationship between the time of action, recording and viewing becomes part of the construction of the self-portrait.

Heidegger's question of temporality in Being and Time provides a context for reflecting on existence lived between memory and possibility. The concept of flow concerns the subjective experience of absorption in work. The film juxtaposes different qualities of time. The journey also encompasses stillness, distraction, waiting and uncertainty, without which the representation of creativity would become merely a success story.

Probabilism: possible paths

In “Au(c)tor”, probabilism is the author's term for thinking about multiple possible courses of events. The protagonist chooses one path, but others remain present as imaginings, rejected decisions or unused connections. Art allows form to be given to possibilities that can be conceived before they become part of direct experience.

The labyrinth, map, game and nonlinear narrative allow this multiplicity to be shown through different means. Abstract, conceptual and relational material can reveal not only a single outcome but also the conditions of its emergence. Simulations, generative algorithms and AI are considered as tools for developing variants and scenarios.

Potentiality does not mean arbitrariness. Each choice changes the network of relationships, and the form of the work must allow its consequences to be recognised. In this way, the openness of the process can become legible to the viewer: as a possibility of taking another route through the material, rather than an absence of compositional decision.

The studio as an other space

The studio is a place where everyday rules can be temporarily suspended in favour of experimentation. It is a material space—with a body, tools, objects and traces of work—and an imagined one, developed through successive actions. It allows solitude, concentration and confrontation with one's own questions, yet it is not outside society or beyond the influence of its expectations.

Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia, presented in the lecture Des espaces autres (1967), makes it possible to read the studio as a place juxtaposing different orders and maintaining a particular relationship with the surrounding space. In “Au(c)tor”, it is both culturally distinct and connected to society, for which it can serve as a critical mirror.

In the studio, a painterly imagining becomes plane and colour, a sculptural one becomes an experience of matter, a choreographic one becomes the organisation of movement, while performance connects the body with time and space. Actions transform the room; the objects left behind alter the conditions of subsequent work. The studio is therefore both a shelter and a place where an established order can be dismantled.

The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard (1957) helps consider the significance of shelter, memory and imagination in experiencing a place. Thirdspace by Edward Soja (1996) introduces the perspective of a “third space”: relationships between the material, the imagined and the socially lived. In both perspectives, place actively participates in shaping experience and producing new narratives.

In the language of individuation, the studio can become a place for the symbolic integration of experiences. In relation to the audience, it opens the question of moving from a private process to a shared situation. Film, exhibition and website make traces of work available without erasing the difference between the author's personal experience and that of the viewer. Opus Tower, as a temporary shelter containing artefacts from the journey, transfers this relationship into the depicted world itself.

Narrative progression: 28 stages of the journey

Each stage of Auctor's journey has its own chapter in the poem, film and book. All stages are also worked through in the video performances “Sketch for IndywiduAkcja” and “Opus Tower”. Individual chapters also develop other media and artistic techniques, described below. The shared structure comprises figures and characters as well as places, concepts and processes; not all are archetypes drawn from a single psychological theory.

The following synopsis presents the meaning of each stage, its expressive means, and the distinct course of scenes in the film and the book.

1. Au(c)tor

The chapter “Au(c)tor” opens the journey of an artist confronting the limits of his own identity and art. The asymptote, the encounter with the horizon and the alien being anticipate the pursuit of an unattainable ideal and a struggle with the unknown. Here, the asymptote is a metaphor for continually approaching a goal, rather than a literal description of the protagonist's path. Auctor attempts to move beyond his “lowlands”—inner and external limitations—to find new ground and reach another peak of creative possibility. The fear and fascination accompanying this journey find expression in various media, including the animation “Asymptote”, in which darkness and the horizon depict inner transformation.

Film. The chapter appears only as a fragment of the poem and as a computer animation depicting the creator's path as a symbolic journey along an asymptote.

Book. The introductory chapter announces the journey and presents its central conflict. An alien being appears, offering people advice and assistance in exchange for large quantities of energy and information. To prepare for a confrontation with it, Auctor must enter the darkness of his own soul.

2. Persona

“Persona” concerns the social mask and the influence of roles and other people's expectations on identity. Auctor explores his illusory self-image, automatism, formulaic patterns, mimicry and what the project calls “Taksamczość”. Comfortable superficiality and stereotypes become a refuge from authenticity. Through computer graphics and adopting “other people's poses”, the artist examines the fear of rejection and conformity to populist trends. Confrontation with the Persona opens the question of whether a social role can be integrated with one's own “self”.

Film. Auctor is in the studio, painting his own image and surrounding himself with objects symbolising ego and identity. He tries to perfect the image, but mounting frustration leads him to paint over the mask he had previously worn. The gesture anticipates rejection of the external façade.

Book. Auctor confronts a world of appearances in which he has become trapped through conformity and attachment to habits.

3. Innocence

“Innocence” evokes purity, naivety and hope, and a desire to reach aspirations not yet shaped by social influences. Auctor immerses himself in an archetypal dream, visions and revelations that expose his fears, complexes and traumas. Within this stage's psychoanalytic perspective, obsessions and visions of a psychotic character bring hidden psychic contents to the surface. Surreal video and music create an oneiric atmosphere, directing the narrative towards the experience of transcendence.

Film. After an intense night of creative work, Auctor wakes bewildered by what has happened to his painting. A conversation with a woman reveals that, despite exhaustion and frustration, he feels pressure to finish the work. The desire for perfection clashes with discouragement about his own creative practice.

Book. Before setting out, Auctor experiences hesitation and doubt.

4. Catharsis

“Catharsis” signifies awakening and emotional cleansing. The voice of conscience and an inner stirring jolt Auctor out of the numbness of comfort. Performative actions, sculpture and music express the release of accumulated negative emotions, relief, renewal and acceptance of his own otherness. The protagonist gains a new perspective on himself and the world.

Film. Auctor destroys the mask, symbolically breaking with a false image of himself. He then shaves his head and draws a runic sign. These ritual acts express an attempt to find his own identity and inner peace.

Book. Cleansing arrives in a grotesque packing scene: Auctor falls into his own suitcase. After this event, he feels ready to set out and begin another cycle of individuation.

5. Trickster

At the entrance to the realm of Opus, a symbolic labyrinth, Auctor encounters the Trickster. The archetypal deceiver introduces chaos, change and unpredictability, challenges the protagonist's established beliefs and provokes an emotional shock. Breaking rigid patterns opens new creative possibilities. The labyrinth reflects the complexity of the psyche; in animation and interactive installations encompassing the exhibition space, it also becomes a place viewers can enter to participate in the symbolic journey.

Film. The Trickster appears as Auctor's inner alter ego. He confronts Auctor with his fears and offers him a camera to document his own transformation. The encounter begins the protagonist's struggle with his inner demons.

Book. Auctor encounters a street artist whose performance, addressed directly to him, carries a metaphorical message.

6. Opus

“Opus” refers to the alchemical Great Work: a transformation leading to the integration of different aspects of the psyche. Auctor stands at the entrance to the realm of Opus, where he is to encounter his Shadow and confront his inner contradictions. Doubt and fear of the unknown accompany his entry into a space symbolising the unconscious. In the project, the Realm of Opus takes the form of a computer simulation that allows it to be viewed and explored.

Film. Images of individuation and alchemical transmutation depict the protagonist's inner transformation. Auctor paints a sketch of his own figure, attempting to understand and accept himself.

Book. The chapter reflects on the complexity of the inner world. The Trickster reveals his role as a guide through this space.

7. Temenos

“Temenos” refers to the Greek concept of a sacred place set apart from the world. In the project, it is a designated space of protection, contemplation and self-knowledge. Auctor creates a shelter from external influences and then takes its key with him, so that he can maintain a sense of inner safety beyond it. In this way, he prepares the conditions for further transformation.

Film. Auctor protects the sacred fire and his inner Self from destructive influences. On the sketch of his own figure, he paints a mandala/labyrinth/garden motif at the forehead and a city within the head. These signs of psychological self-defence prepare him for further trials and encounters with aspects of his own psyche.

Book. Following the Trickster's advice, Auctor secures his home for the duration of his journey. He also gives the key protective properties intended to support him during encounters with the shadows of his own psyche and the final confrontation with the alien being.

8. Map

“Map” presents the creation of a topography of Auctor's inner space and the identification of areas requiring exploration. The microcosm, heterotopia and a network of marma points belong to the symbolism of inner and energetic space used in the project. The map serves as a guide through this realm and a tool for recognising his own place in the world. The stage takes the form of computer graphics and a full-length self-portrait.

Film. Auctor paints a map of his body, marking symbolic energy points. The gesture expresses a readiness to continue confronting himself. The Trickster's mysterious instructions foreshadow further inner challenges.

Book. The Trickster gives Auctor a map of the realm of Opus and leads him through a city where the protagonist encounters characters already distorted by the presence of the alien being.

9. Shadow

“Shadow” signifies confrontation with repressed and unaccepted aspects of personality. Auctor confronts his fear of the technosphere and dramasphere, lack of flexibility, emotional blocks and the polarisation of desires and fears. The Jungian Shadow serves here as a figure for contents demanding recognition and integration.

Film. The encounter with the Shadow unfolds through a mysterious box and animal cards symbolising different aspects of the unconscious. The Trickster leaves Auctor alone. The protagonist's terror and helplessness precede the actual journey into the realm of shadow.

Book. Auctor leaves the city symbolising the technosphere and enters the forest—the dramasphere, the dark part of the realm of Opus. There he encounters Animas and Animuses, as well as Fauns and Floras. He follows the procession of these beings through the forest.

10. The Abandoned One

“The Abandoned One” expresses solitude, rejection and a sense of abandonment. Auctor experiences helplessness, disorientation and longing, recognising the influence of isolation on his own identity. This stage invokes Saint John of the Cross's motif of the dark night: losing faith in himself reveals a deeper need for acceptance and healing.

Film. Auctor encounters himself as a child, embodying the innocent and forgotten aspects of his personality. Placing the cards he has found on the painting becomes a gesture of their acceptance and integration. Before leaving, the child paints a little house where the heart is, then returns to the wardrobe from which he came. The wardrobe remains a point of entry and exit for subsequent characters as well.

Book. Lost in a dark forest, Auctor finds a solitary, locked cottage. He reflects on his fate, solitude and disorientation, sinking into doubt and resignation.

11. Master

“Master” combines the search for wisdom and guidance with accepting duties and responsibility. Auctor seeks an inner or external mentor while confronting destructive aspects of the ego, anthropocentrism and authoritarianism. Sculpture and performative actions express work on inner discipline and his relationship with authority and power.

Film. Auctor finishes placing cards on the painting, completing this stage of integration. The Trickster indicates that contact with the aspects of Auctor represented on them requires action rather than a conventional conversation. Finding a ladder anticipates further development and a spiritual ascent.

Book. Auctor encounters a bird symbolising harmony with nature and insight into the structure of the realm of shadows. The bird leads him out of his confusion and helps him find the way forward.

12. Ruler

“Ruler” connects control, authority and responsibility with the struggle for independence. Auctor does not indulge himself and recognises the patriarchal patterns that have shaped his life. Taking responsibility for his own decisions and freeing himself from these patterns find expression in abstract and conceptual art, as well as in performative actions.

Film. A figure dressed as a king appears before Auctor as he paints. The king points to a forest with a castle on the map and orders the protagonist to paint it. When Auctor refuses, the king binds him with ropes. The protagonist frees himself using the ladder, climbing it to avoid further entanglement.

Book. The King of the Fauns forces Auctor into service. The protagonist learns about the system operating in the castle, the hierarchy of power and the king's attitude towards the alien beings. Eventually he manages to free himself and continue his journey.

13. Sage

“Sage” signifies inner wisdom, harmony and a new level of understanding of one's place in the world. Auctor moves away from seeking support solely outside himself and discovers a strength that allows him to harmonise body and mind. In addition to the media present throughout the cycle, this stage is developed through meditative paintings and music expressing calm and deeper reflection.

Film. Auctor paints a star symbolising a compass or signpost. An old man emerges from the wardrobe and arranges sheets with reproductions of paintings around it. After a while, Auctor rearranges them. Before returning to the wardrobe, the old man throws him a walking stick. The protagonist uses it to experiment with the composition's arrangement and to select a fragment of a reproduction, which he glues onto the painting.

Book. Meeting the sage allows Auctor to see the problem of the alien being from a different perspective.

14. Antagonist

“Antagonist” brings together the internal and external forces opposing the protagonist. Lack of support and emotional instability summon bad memories, resentment and rage. Confronting them helps Auctor recognise his own boundaries and develop self-respect. Contrasting forms and colours express this struggle and the possibility of rebirth.

Film. While painting further elements of the picture, Auctor encounters the Antagonist. The figure remains indifferent and behaves as though he cannot see him. The encounter recalls the protagonist's past and reveals his inner oppositions. Auctor divides the painting into two halves.

Book. Auctor encounters a ghost of the past. Initial uncertainty and resignation gradually give way to a renewed sense of meaning and direction.

15. Mother

“Mother” evokes care, love, safety and protection, but also overprotectiveness, control and possessiveness. Encountering this dual figure allows Auctor to examine his relationships with femininity and the maternal aspects of his own life. The tension between restriction and giving life becomes an impulse to continue the journey. Alongside the cycle's recurring media, paintings and sculptures depict the cycle of life and intuitive wisdom.

Film. A woman symbolising the Mother emerges from the wardrobe. She circles Auctor, who is sitting before the painting, and stands behind him. Her presence brings both support and tension. She gives the protagonist a coat and disappears. A rose appears in the painting, inspiring him to paint a garden around the navel.

Book. Auctor encounters two Mother figures. The first, a dark one, draws water from an underground river and urges him to stay with her. The protagonist nevertheless moves on. In a garden, he meets a Mother planting flowers, who encourages him to continue his journey.

16. Temptress

“Temptress” presents bodily and emotional temptations that may divert the protagonist from his goal. Auctor examines his weaknesses, willpower and capacity for self-control. Strong emotions, seduction and lust complicate his path towards spiritual enlightenment. The erotic art of this stage explores the relationship between body and spirit.

Film. Auctor is painting on canvas when the Temptress emerges from the wardrobe. She radiates charm and eroticism, then hides from Auctor in the wardrobe, enticing him with sensuality and bodily pleasure. She tries to draw him away from creative work by offering other ways to satisfy his desires. At first the protagonist yields to her influence, but ultimately returns to work. He uses her tights to paint another part of the picture where the thighs are.

Book. Auctor succumbs to the Temptress and becomes intimate with her in a clearing full of flowers. The setting sun pulls him out of the erotic trance and reminds him of the journey ahead.

17. Admirer

“Admirer” evokes love, passion and devotion, and asks what the protagonist truly loves and what gives his life meaning. In the narrative, the character is given opposite traits: indifference, coldness and a lack of empathy. This contrast directs attention to the need for recognition, a sense of emptiness and the possibility of losing connection with others. Minimalist forms and sounds express emotional withdrawal.

Film. The Admirer emerges from the wardrobe and examines Auctor's work, but is primarily interested in his own reflection in the mirror. He displays neither admiration nor criticism. His coldness and distance make the protagonist feel misunderstood and undervalued, undermining his confidence in his work. Auctor shuts the narcissistic figure in the wardrobe, and the arrangement of the scarf the figure leaves behind inspires him to paint a river symbolising energy channels.

Book. Auctor is found by an indifferent, self-important Admirer—a businessman. He argues that the alien being is not evil and that it is worth turning back, undergoing the digital transformation as he himself has done, and benefiting from it by becoming an artificial being oneself. Auctor rejects this view and remains on his chosen path.

18. Rebel

“Rebel” expresses resistance to norms and authorities, and the search for one's own path. Pride, stubbornness and aggression drive Auctor to fight for freedom, independence and the overcoming of external constraints and internal barriers. Dynamic forms and aggressive techniques depict this rebellion.

Film. The Rebel emerges from the wardrobe, full of anger and opposition to established rules. He reminds Auctor of the need to question the status quo and fight for artistic freedom. The protagonist faces a choice between a risky game with conventions and a more balanced creative path. The Rebel impales the mask on a spear like a trophy and returns to the wardrobe. Auctor uses the Rebel's knife to paint a beach with bushes where the legs are.

Book. The Rebel mistakes Auctor for an emissary of the artificial beings and tries to stop him. After a fierce duel, the protagonist defeats his opponent. The Rebel then invites him to join a rebellion against the artificial beings. Auctor refuses and continues on his own path.

19. Wanderer

“Wanderer” brings together searching, exploration and freedom. Auctor discovers the meaning of the journey and the will to power, opening himself to new horizons. Stories of wandering find a visual counterpart in fantastical landscape painting.

Film. The Wanderer emerges from the wardrobe with a long, colourful roll, which he unfurls alongside the painting. Auctor uses its colours as he continues his journey through the realm of artistic exploration. The figure recalls the discovery of new paths, the experience of the world and the unceasing movement of creativity, full of surprises and challenges.

Book. Among sandy dunes, Auctor encounters the Wanderer. He listens to stories of the Wanderer's fantastic adventures, his encounter with the Chimera and the Siren, and his advice. He receives a remedy for wounds sustained in the fight with the Rebel. The two then continue onwards.

20. Shaman

“Shaman” presents a mediator between the material and spiritual worlds. He leads Auctor through visions and memories, helping him confront the darkest areas of his psyche. Ritual images and music express the search for deeper understanding, primal values and contact with the earth.

Film. The Shaman emerges from the wardrobe with symbols of nature, spirituality and mysticism. He leads Auctor into meditation and contemplation, directing his attention to deep layers of the psyche and the unconscious. Ritual and symbolic gestures enter the creative process, serving to recognise and transform fears and desires. A sea appears on the self-portrait around the feet.

Book. The Shaman tells Auctor about the influence of artificial beings on people. He points to primal values and simplicity as possible sources of wisdom and independence in the face of these changes. He then leads the protagonist into a deep trance accompanied by intense visions.

21. Odysseus

“Odysseus” refers to the mythological hero of a long journey filled with challenges. Auctor discovers hope and a vision of his goal; in the project's language, the passage from involution to evolution signifies spiritual rebirth. The stage develops primarily in the book “Au(c)tor”, in an epic account of travelling through different spheres of existence and returning to everyday life.

Film. A figure of Auctor as Odysseus emerges from the wardrobe, symbolising the physical and spiritual dimensions of a long journey. The figure reminds him of the hardships of the physical and spiritual path. Following him, the protagonist moves from hope and determination to doubt and confrontation with limitations. On a symbolic return journey from the realm of the deepest shadows, he encounters earlier archetypal figures again and helps them integrate their essence. Achieving goals becomes less significant than the process of overcoming obstacles and finding a place in the world of art.

Book. Auctor sails in the boat “Odysseus”, tracing an ever-widening arc around the realm of Opus and experiencing its different dimensions. The esoteric dimension of this journey is connected with leaving the realm of shadow and returning to the technosphere.

22. Abraham

“Abraham” connects faith, trust and sacrifice with a sense of mission, persistence and consistency. Auctor confronts his weaknesses and prepares to face the alien being. Solitude and seclusion become conditions of his transformation. Meditative paintings and sculptures depict the effort of climbing and the search for a path to the goal.

Film. Auctor leaves the wardrobe and enters the Abraham stage. His girlfriend becomes his guide: she passes on knowledge and everyday wisdom that help him endure solitude, struggle and seclusion. The figure of Abraham connects this scene with sacrifice and perseverance in realising an artistic vision, even when the goal seems almost unattainable.

Book. Auctor reaches the port on the outskirts of his city, but instead of returning home he heads towards the mountains. As he climbs, he prepares to confront the artificial being said to live in one of the mountain cottages.

23. Warrior

“Warrior” evokes the courage, strength and determination needed to overcome the final obstacles. Auctor finds a house on a mountain summit where the alien is hiding. Victory is connected with learning acceptance, trust and forgiveness. Dynamic forms and energetic colours express triumph and inner transformation.

Film. The Warrior motif accompanies intensive preparations for the exhibition. Auctor finishes the works and organises the display. The work demands strength, discipline and determination, while also involving struggles with inner demons, his own weaknesses and external adversities.

Book. After a dramatic battle, Auctor defeats the alien being in a cottage on one of the mountains.

24. Hospitality

“Hospitality”, associated with the figure of the Host, signifies understanding, respect and mutual gratitude after the battle and the intensive preparations. It includes care, responsibility for others and learning to share knowledge and experience. Harmonious compositions and forms depict calm and restored balance.

Book. Auctor gains a better understanding of the alien's motives and helps his hosts in the house on the mountain summit, whom he has freed from the monster's terror. Mutual affection and respect allow him to rest, reflect on the journey and prepare to continue it. This relationship develops the figure of the Host.

Film. At the exhibition opening, Hospitality takes the form of a relationship with the audience. Viewers help Auctor see that creativity encompasses both solitary wandering and encounters with others that enrich and complete the work.

25. Martyr

“Martyr” concerns perseverance, sacrifice and the question of what is worth devoting them to in life and art. Auctor struggles with pain and the limits of endurance as he reaches the highest peak in the realm of Opus. He places a light there as a sign of victory over the alien. Dramatic forms and intense colours express the emotional cost and spiritual dimension of this achievement.

Book. Violent winds and other weather phenomena hinder the climb to the highest peak. Exhaustion develops the symbolism of the Martyr: pursuing the goal demands suffering, sacrifice and exceeding the limits of the protagonist's endurance. This figure raises the question of sacrifices made in the name of higher values and an artistic mission.

Film. During the exhibition opening, Auctor invites viewers into a specially arranged studio. There they can assume the role of artists themselves and rework several copies of his works shown in the exhibition.

26. Creator

“Creator” embodies imagination, innovation and creative power. Auctor completes the individual section of his journey and enters a collective process described in the project as the “morphogenetics of the collective”. Self-acceptance and authentic communication with others open the possibility of using creative potential more fully. Joyful, harmonious forms express balance and the interaction of perception and intuition.

Film. Auctor adds a painted element to the full-length self-portrait hanging in the exhibition, symbolising his entry into a shared creative process. He then writes a manifesto and places it in the display. These gestures connect his individual vision with a broader social and cultural perspective: the work has significance both for its creator and for the community to which he belongs.

Book. Auctor builds a shelter on the mountain summit, where the final stage of his journey is to take place.

27. Magician (Catalyst)

“Magician (Catalyst)” connects transformation with the ability to influence oneself and one's surroundings. Auctor cleanses himself and lights a fire in the shelter on the mountain summit. Despite his solitude, he experiences a sense of his own presence and that of others; sublime feelings are accompanied by awareness of the processes taking place. Abstract forms and delicate colours symbolise cleansing and spiritual rebirth.

Film. Under the influence of the Magician figure, Auctor performs the final creative act of this cycle: he creates a multimedia animation displayed on the full-length self-portrait. Letting go of material and emotional burdens takes the form of symbolic cleansing, transformation and a striving for inner harmony.

Book. Immersed in a trance, Auctor experiences a vision of travelling above the mountain shelter. He rises higher and higher, into cosmic space, discovering increasingly universal truths.

28. Angel Fravarti

“Angel Fravarti” represents spiritual guidance, protection and a momentary encounter with the fullness of existence. The vision of a woman-angel leads Auctor onto a bridge in the form of a tree reaching towards heaven. The final journey also includes crossing a bridge shaped as a Möbius strip—a sign of infinity and return. Momentary harmony with higher aspects of his own consciousness and the experience of proximity to the absolute end in a fall and a recognition of his own impermanence. Mystical images and sounds express transcendence, but the protagonist remains obliged to continue working through his experiences. The completion of one cycle is simultaneously the beginning of another.

Book. Auctor encounters Angel Fravarti, an intermediary who introduces people to the heavenly sphere. However, Auctor is not ready to follow him. He must turn back and go through another cycle of individuation.

Film. Auctor meditates in a symbolic pose before the full-length self-portrait. The animation “Asymptote” returns, depicting the pursuit of an ideal that remains unattainable. The scene recalls the project's central idea: creativity consists in continually approaching an ideal and struggling against the appearance of achieved success. In the author's view, an artist is a creator for as long as he creates, and ceases to be one when he begins to replicate his own achievements and ways of creating. He remains an eternal traveller; definitively reaching the goal would make him someone else. The film ends with a conversation with his girlfriend in which Auctor speaks directly about art, creativity and the artist's identity.

The twenty-eight chapters connect the process of making with Auctor's inner transformation. Characters, places and concepts give form to his conflicts, inspirations and desire to move beyond his own limits. The shared structure makes it possible to trace connections between media while preserving the distinct events depicted in the film and the book.

An open ending

“Au(c)tor” presents creativity as work that transforms both material and the way one understands one's own actions. Images, objects, texts, sounds and gestures remain independent forms and, at the same time, traces of a shared journey. Its openness does not mean abandoning an outcome: every work demands decisions, although none of them need close the entire process.

For the author, what is at stake is maintaining agency in relation to his habits, social roles, the market and technology. For the viewer, it is the possibility of entering a complex narrative without having to accept all its interpretations. Viewers may recognise their own experience, question the proposed connections or choose a single thread and develop it independently.

The final gesture is therefore not a confirmation of achieved wholeness. It is a readiness to return to work and to meet others again. Auctor remains a traveller, and the project a space in which subsequent forms may change the meaning of what was created before.