SWIRLS OF FORTUNE is a speculative meditation on collective consciousness, decentralized governance, and the poetics of emergence in an age of algorithmic control. The film unfolds where boundaries between digital and physical realms dissolve, challenging fixed notions of subjectivity and organizational paradigms.
Through a series of interconnected vignettes, we follow the emergence of "The Sphere"—a decentralized autonomous entity born from the convergence of clowns, jugglers, and "NPCs" (non-player characters) that exists simultaneously as metaphor and material reality. Set against the backdrop of cybernetic capitalism's perpetual future-haunting, the film traces how this collectivity establishes new forms of social coordination beyond traditional hierarchical structures.
The narrative oscillates between three distinct perspectives: the embodied experience of labor (represented by Clowns), the decentralized network (embodied by Jugglers), and the omniscient cosmic viewpoint (channeled through Swirl, a godlike narrator who both observes and manifests the collective). These perspectives ultimately converge around the question of how to foster transindividuation—the process by which individuals constitute themselves through their technical and social relations.
SWIRLS OF FORTUNE does not offer utopian answers but instead performs the very experimentation it depicts: a spiraling exploration of governance as aesthetic practice, where bureaucracy becomes a site of creative intervention rather than administrative capture. The film itself functions as a proposal for new forms of collective sense-making, embedding its theoretical concerns within its formal structure.
At once playful and philosophically dense, the work draws on traditions of experimental cinema while speaking directly to contemporary questions about decentralized technology, collective organization, and the possibility of agency within increasingly complex systems of control.
ABOUT THE ARTIST Lene Vollhardt / The Sphere (*NYC, USA) is a German-American transmedia and performance artist based in London, UK. Working at the intersection of art and technology, Lene explores how bodies, collaboration, and systems of value intertwine. As a key collaborator with Sphere DAO, Lene designs protocols that reimagine artistic labor as living systems of care and creation. Their projects have been presented internationally, including at the 13th Sharjah Film Forum; Royal Academy of Art London; Serpentine Arts Futures & RadicalxChange, Kunstraum Kreuzberg; Athens Digital Arts Festival, and ConTempo Festival Kaunas. Their writings appear in Outland; Arts of The Working Class; Munitionsfabrik; Field of Study, and Royal Academy of Arts Magazine. They have received the Scholarships of Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, and Chisenhale Dance Space. They received the Fokus Award of Nikolaj Kunsthal Copenhagen and the Hong Kong Art House Award.

CREDITS Director, Screenplay: Lene Vollhardt Sound Design: Tom Haelstead Visual Art & Worldbuilding: Tym Novy
Performers: Marija Baranauskaite, Ulla Baranauskaite-Liberman, Markas Liberman, Erik Bordeleau, Pedro Victor Brandão, Cem Dagdalen, Utka Nehuen Gavuzzo, Antonia Kuzmanic, Cecilia Manfrini, Lean Ruegg, Andrea Salustri, Lene Vollhardt

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Medium: Video Length: 13’33’’ Year: 2025