Specter
It is always nighttime
in the Metaverse
MetaGarden Club 2.0 (2021)
Tanja Vujinović
About the work:
“MetaGarden Club 2.0 is a virtual club and garden that enables us to explore virtual reality as a social space of connectedness, featuring a minimal techno audio-visual set or special events scheduled by the author. It is inhabited by generated Dyson Sphere-like devices, objects inspired by the shapes of snakes and plants, and Tanja’s proto machines, futuristic retro devices that take care of the environment.
Club 2.0 is placed within Sansar, an amalgam of a computer game and a social platform that offers its users possibilities of organizing events and publishing content in the form of virtual worlds and avatars. Sansar could also be described as a “Non-game game”, a class of software offering the player unbound possibilities of freeform play, identity with a great degree of self-expression, explorational interaction, without the limits of conventional or imposed goals and objectives.
The world is full of orchids as representations of its most seductive and diverse flowers, while the Dyson sphere-inspired objects float, encircling stars and capturing their energy to be used in this world. As new spheres of MetaGarden unfold, we can observe their elements form lives of their own. As Félix Guattari puts it, “its chaosmic Universe can be constellated with […], vegetal, animal, cosmic or machinic...becomings.”
How does one connect with another being nowadays? Music is one such medium, essential for both celebration and play. Vibrations of sound waves as invisible wires spread emotion through triggering impulses. As a liquid agent distributed among actors of a particular world, it can connect the invisible strings among people, and tie them into a temporary network of vibrant energy flows. This liberating, transcending of the self through the crowd dancing in togetherness is also one form of play. It is a communal dance, it is a primal activity in unfolding, a cosmic unity of sorts, it is an intimacy with the universe. Hakim Bey talks in ‘The Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ)’ about the parties as republics of gratified desires. Escaping the regular rhythms of life, according to Bey, helps one to discover the real edges of reality. Like in a dream, VR users experience shifting of reality references. These may seem like temporary acts of anarchist dreams from autonomous zones and a re-awakened culture of free festival with care, cultivation, and love as a driving force in mind.”
3D modelling & World building: Tanja Vujinović
Sphere4 Club ₲Ɇ₦Ɇ₴ł₴ AV set played in the world: Tanja Vujinović (visual material from Universal Objects and MetaGarden series) & Sasa Radic (sound); Tracks: Jackal, B3, Mind Drive, Vertical, Push it, Rolling 3.0, Never Ending Story (Published by Vozotonik Records, Triple Vision Record Distribution / Smashed Records. Proton Distribution)
Additional assets for the world and avatar clothing: Sansar Store
Coproduction: SciArtLab, Jožef Stefan Institute
Production: Ultramono, 2021