Mika Johnson
Directing
Biography
Mika Johnson specializes in creating multimedia works and immersive installations, where dream-like narratives, mythology, ritual, and ecology intersect. He also directs both fiction and documentary projects. As a Somatic Experiencing therapist, in training, the goal of Johnson's work is to create presence and embodiment. His immersive installations have been showcased in over 40 countries and his films have received numerous awards at festivals, including Best Feature Film Director at the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival (2020), Best Experimental Short at Reel 13 (2016), and Bes Medium Length Film at the Mirror Mountain Festival (2015). Johnson’s first XR project, VRwandlung (2018), adapted Franz Kafka's “The Metamorphosis” into VR. Featured in Stern Magazine and The Economist, the project has been presented in over 50 cities worldwide. Johnson’s current projects include: Theta Noir: A performance art collective that creates AI rituals and installations to contemplate technology’s future as an evolutionary force and to disrupt big tech, corporate AI narratives. The Infinite Library: A traveling multimedia installation that reimagines the library as a multisensory experience, featuring VR works, 3D prints, projections, a phone app & QR code game, and more. The Republic of Dreams: a traveling immersive installation that adapts the work of Bruno Schulz, incorporating sonic experiences, videos, illustrations, and an interactive map. Long-term projects include The Amerikans, a web series featuring 15 short documentaries, and his 2020 debut feature, Confessions of a Box Man, which is the first part of a trilogy. Johnson also lectures, presents, and hosts workshops on various subjects including the evolution of art and AI. His workshops explore how generative AI tools can reconnect us to our collective artistic heritage—a legacy over 70,000 years old that served ritualistic, communal, spiritual, and magical purposes in collaboration with more-than-human entities such as plants, fungi, and animals. He is a part-time instructor at Prague City University and a consultant for the Goethe-Institut.
Known For
A sexually frustrated journalist researches a group of men who leave society behind for life inside a cardboard box.
Confessions of a Box Man
A young woman moves to Tokyo. Her quest to find spiritual values hidden in the modern city leads her to take photographs and ends in a pilgrimage to a remote cemetery in the mountains. Shot amongst the neon lights and crowds of Tokyo and the ancient graves and forestry in the Buddhist monastery town of Koyasan, The Mountain of Signs is a film homage to the essay form of zuihitsu in traditional Japanese literature. Its nameless female protagonist illustrates her surroundings through a diaristic monologue that combines poetry and philosophy.
The Mountain of Signs
A traveling installation that imagines the future of libraries as interactive spaces, engaging visitors by multi-sensory forms of storytelling. It embed human stories within a grander narrative, one with birth of our planet and evolution.