Media Under Dystopia 3.0: WASD

MUD Foundation kicks off the third year of Media Under Dystopia, a hybrid exhibition program supporting artists working at the center of art + technology.

(November 7, 2022) Miami, FL – MUD Foundation announces Media Under Dystopia 3.0: WASD, a new exhibition that features projects by artists that explore ideas of collaboration, performance, extractivism, and the intersection of physical and digital realms. At its core, the exhibition centers around the use of the internet as its own creative medium.

“WASD” keys became the standard for moving around virtual worlds on the left side of our keyboard interface. First used in 1986 in “Dark Castle,” a video game made by Silicon Beach Software, WASD keys became the primary form of navigating virtual spaces moving forward. The WASD edition of Media Under Dystopia 3.0 takes on the idea of WASD keys as a conceptual framework that invites participants and visitors to navigate the space of the internet as an artistic metaverse.

Each of the works calls upon visitors to experience and engage with them in a virtual realm, intentionally positioning them as active participants in the artworks themselves. This idea is core to MUD Foundation’s mission – expanding beyond the traditional means of experiencing art and deconstructing the walls of space by opening up the boundless space of the metaverse as an access point for creative engagement.Building upon previous iterations of its exhibitions program, this year MUD foundation is publicly launching its own metaverse platform, Onland –an open web-based metaverse with a mission of facilitating educational and artistic projects where the internet, data, virtual reality, and art converge. Onland will be the metaverse host platform for all of Media Under Dystopia exhibitions– past, present, and future–ensuring that these artworks can exist and evolve in perpetuity beyond the run of their physical presentations.In the work of Vuk Ćosić, the intersection of digital and cultural histories is explored through the research and reimagining of “card stunts” used in various historical contexts where individuals become only a pixel and are surrogates to the collective inertia. Vladan Joler explores the concept of a new form of extractivism in the stacking behind contemporary technological systems creating a blueprint of a machine-like superstructure: a super allegory. Antonio Mendez, aka Queef Latina, uses the metaverse to bring drag performance and culture into a new dimension–to be experienced in various interfaces–allowing viewers of any ability, or background to immerse themselves. Rafael Rodríguez Gárciga’s work explores the phygital realm by translating data from the actual to the virtual, through 3D printed sensor interfaces that transform any surface into a smart surface.

Including both local and international artists, the participating artists in the exhibition include Ariel Baron-Robbins, Vuk Ćosić, Vladan Joler, Antonio Mendez, Rafael Rodríguez Gárciga, and Alba Triana. Onland will publicly launch with artworks by these participating artists and also, Leo Castaneda, Jose Hernandez, and Yucef Merhi.

MUD 3.0, as part of its programming, will be putting into practice Onland ’s mission of facilitating educational and artistic projects by presenting a series of workshops and projects centered around exploring the impact of new organizational forms-decentralized autonomous organizations- afforded by blockchain technology coupled with other disruptive technologies will have on art, community, and technology.Media Under Dystopia: 3.0: WASD is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and Board of County Commissioners. The artwork Augmented Drag Reality by Antonio Mendez is funded by The Ellies, Miami’s visual arts awards, presented by Oolite Arts with additional support from MUD Foundation.

MUD Foundation is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, the Department of State, the Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.