Metauniverse (2022-2024)

"Metauniverse" is a joint project with Svetlana Dubas.

In this series, we have tried to voice the questions and anxieties arising from the intrusion of virtual perceptions into our lives.

Human experiences are increasingly associated with images generated by computers. The virtual world invites us, promising bright and joyful sensations, but at the same time, it draws us in like a rabbit hole leading to another dimension.

The virtual world is entirely under our control. It is easier to dive into it than to sort out problems in reality. A man or a child feels free and safe in the generated world because everything around is unreal.
Virtual experience invades everyday life: virtual entertainment, work, shopping, friends, and, finally, your virtual body—the avatar. We go from improving our image in selfies and enriching reality with beautiful backgrounds and surroundings all the way to complete dissolution in a colorful fantasy world. People create a phantasy that is indistinguishable from reality, and meanwhile, reality becomes increasingly indistinguishable from a very dark phantasy.

A person in the virtual world pays less attention to the surrounding reality. He lives in it, but it is no longer the sphere of his interests.The virtual world, however, is just a distorted reflection of the real one. Exiting from the fantasy world and facing reality could bring a certain discomfort.

People become separated while they remain in loneliness, each in their own virtual world. How will people staying in virtual reality interact with those who live close to them but whose reality is not augmented? Will they understand each other? Will they perceive reality and real-world problems in the same way?

What could the real world be like for people who have left reality (hidden from reality) and do not care about it? What would the real world become when they don't care about the environment?
Are we standing on the edge of an abyss, or are we preparing for a new leap in development?

We use symbolism and allegory to voice these questions and concerns in the same way as a dystopia does: by taking an idea to its extreme, it highlights the problem and makes us think about it.

We want to hope that technology and AI will help progress and open the way to new opportunities. Until now, AI has only processed the experience we have accumulated.
Perhaps the approaches that AI will offer we cannot yet imagine.

Perhaps this will allow us to expand our horizons from virtual worlds to cosmic ones.