Symbio CoFounder | fiveDX Technical Director

Christian is passionate about creating profound immersive experiences for people. With a reverence for design in the broadest sense, his particular area of work integrates storytelling, ecology, “synaesthetics” and dance.

“The practice of ‘stepping back’ to feel out my own intentions has been a purifying gift, which keeps on giving. It reminds me of this desire to nourish in others the most magnificent of feelings!”

Versed in an array of technology, Christian began performing with some of the first real-time audio-video performance systems. He was fortunate to have worked with a number of prominent brands at a young age, performing at the launch of HBO Canada, and the first Nuit Blanche to be held in Toronto. This lead to supporting various corporate event productions for brands like National Geographic, Yahoo, Heineken, and holding residencies at some of Toronto’s biggest Nightclubs (Lucid, Muzik). Christian then created an interactive ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ DVD in 2006, which earned him a scholarship to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). While centred in the department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation (FVNMA), he utilized the multi-disciplinary freedom made available at SAIC to pursue courses in the Humanities; Animation; and Performance.

After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Christian worked on concert visuals for the Toronto summer series ‘Electric Island’. There, he was fortunate to support the performances of artists like Sven Väth, Maya Jane Coles, and Dixon, while experimenting with his own custom performance technology called ‘GYSR’ (geyser). This is a software interface which facilitates mapping aesthetic natural language to media and information, for flexible retrieval in a live setting. Continuing its development, Christian founded a creative collective called INNERST8, who put forth productions prioritizing mixed media. This involved collaboration with artists of varied discipline, including Paul Kwitek; Petar Dundov; Stephanie Payne; and Natasha Kudashkina. Further inspired by holistic health modalities, and an ongoing environmentalist drive, the vision for Symbio was born.