ANCESTRAL FUTURISM: UNAPOLOGETICALLY MELANATED
Over a year in the making, a team of international BIPOC artists collaborated to claim some space in the metaverse with a new kind of gallery of art and storytelling. The exhibition centers women and non-binary voices and identities, in an expansive, cosmic exploration of cultural, personal, and mythic experience.
Created for the Quest 2, in partnership with Versatile Media, visitors to the XR Culture Gallery will experience the first “room” of immersive artworks in a space we call Ancestral Futurism.
The Gallery features 3D works by Lola Flash, Catherine Blackburn, Karo Duro, Jessi Ujazi and Valentina Vargas.
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Sadah Espii ProctorDirectorGirl Icon
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Valentina VargasDirectorresiliencia
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Wendy LevyProducer
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Cassidy ArkinProducer
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Afua Kafi AkuaProducer
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Kali SpitzerProducer
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Chanelle ElaineProducer
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Valentina VargasProducer
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Aeryn GrayLead Artists
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Kyle LiuLead Artists
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Karo DuroLead Artists
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Jessi UjaziLead Artists
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Catherine BlackburnLead Artists
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Lola FlashLead Artists
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Siraj JhaveriKey Collaborators
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Project Type:Virtual Reality, Installation
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Minimum Runtime:5 minutes
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Maximum Runtime:25 minutes
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Average Runtime:20 minutes
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Variable Runtime Details:This is a walk-through Gallery experience of larger-than-life 3D artworks. Viewers can teleport between installations and spend as long as they like with each work of art.
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Completion Date:September 1, 2022
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Production Budget:200,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United States
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Language:English
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Student Project:No
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FIVARS (Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories)Toronto
Canada
September 15, 2023
World/International Premiere
Distribution Information
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The Alliance for Media Arts + CultureDistributorCountry: WorldwideRights: All Rights
Sadah Espii Proctor (she/her/Espii) is a multimedia director and composer/sound artist working in live performance, installations, and immersive experiences. From a first-generation American perspective (Liberia and Guyana), her work centers around themes of memory and diaspora, social issues, and presence within physical/digital/virtual spaces. Member of ONX, Television Academy, Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), Alliance of Women Directors (AWD), and New York Women in Film and Television (NYWIFT).
Valentina Vargas is a Colombian storyteller who explores the complex realities of the places she inhabits through documentary filmmaking and performing arts. She envisioned the XR Culture Gallery as a way to reclaim and democratize the virtual space for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities. "We are aware of how privileged it is to access the metaverse. So, to be able even to create something for it is the first step of rethinking and reclaiming the virtual world".