Gray Area Showcase Spring 2022 - Main Room

take some time to take a breath.

axis mundi, referring to the connection between the physical and spiritual realms, is a soothing sensory digital space designed in response to the overwhelming, dissociative pace of our current networked lives. informed by the artist's ancestral traditions and cosmologies, a many-tailed spirit guides and grounds viewers through a calming audiovisual loop, bringing awareness to the ebb and flow of breath, and inviting presence, pause, and self-regulation.

The Spectacle of Society explores the relationship between the observed and the observer. How certain can we be of being one or the other? How easily do we become part of a system by the mere fact of observing it? 

On sites like ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com, neural networks are creating hyper-realistic images of people who don't exist.

But you exist.

What would you look like if a neural network tried to create you? And what does it feel like to meet your synthetic self?

This pavilion was built by agents. See link.

Change not Guaranteed is a momentary tether between the physical world and the digital world. It tempts the audience to step into their power and become a digital artist in the perplexing world of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). 

Nothing comes without sacrifice. Here at an alter of crypto-chain-memetopia, they are invited to engage by adding their block to the potential future presented by this technology and culture. 

Through their offering of physical change, they manifest a Non-Fungible Change (NFC) token into existence. Upon claiming this token into their ownership, it immediately goes up for auction. They become forever entangled with the question everyone is asking about this movement, what does it all mean? After being thrust across the mystical threshold from observer to participant, will they awaken in this new dimension with the answer? Or, are they only left with more questions?

The Spectacle of Society explores the relationship between the observed and the observer. How certain can we be of being one or the other? How easily do we become part of a system by the mere fact of observing it? 

ALTER_VERSE is a contemporary altar to the universe and its expansion into digital dimensions. A space to help us transition from the physical into the digital with intention. To reflect upon the metaverse’s significance within our evolutionary journey. A participatory one-on-one experience where performance must be earned.

This is a creative documentation and digital interpretation of the live performance experience that took place on March 2nd & 3rd at Gray Area’s 2022 Spring Artist Showcase.

Through video art, video mapping, and data entry this work explores our transition into the metaverse through journey, ritual, story, and offering. Audience participants were required to move through trials that tested their willingness to engage with the performing artist. 

Upon failure of said trials, the participant was asked to leave. Upon completion of all trials, the participant experienced a spoken word poem written and performed by the artist.

The experience concluded with audience members sharing a verbal offering in response to the question “What will you let escape from your reality, what will you release?”. Their response was numerically recorded via pen and paper. They then received someone else’s response by choosing a number associated with the previous offerings given.

In this digital documentation, there is an offerings portal where you too can receive an offering. By following the link attached to the portal there is a drawn threshold with words flashing within it. These words are the same response offerings given during the live performance. Press your spacebar to receive someone’s real response at random.

THE GHOST PAVILIONS

The Ghost Pavilions are explorations of virtual architecture for co-mingling between AI (agents) & VR-Avatars;
in short, these are spaces for virtual beings (of various kinds) and virtual humans.

The full process of design iteration is represented here: http://delta.center/20102020-ar-platform#/sketchbookz/
You can see the development from Sketchup to Rhino to Grasshopper to Zebra (zebra is an agent based parametric modeller -- the flood pavilion was actually built by agents).

COMPUTATIONAL/VIRTUAL ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY

If you are interested in computational/virtual architecture, please be in touch.
Delta_Ark is currently launching a weekly critique group in the subject, for Bay Area Residents.

Here is a link to the meetup: https://www.meetup.com/bay-area-computational-virtual-architecture-critique-group/