Experiencing Interruptions?

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.

  • Sadah Espii Proctor
    Director
    Girl Icon
  • Valentina Vargas
    Director
    resiliencia
  • Wendy Levy
    Producer
  • Cassidy Arkin
    Producer
  • Afua Kafi Akua
    Producer
  • Kali Spitzer
    Producer
  • Chanelle Elaine
    Producer
  • Valentina Vargas
    Producer
  • Aeryn Gray
    Lead Artists
  • Kyle Liu
    Lead Artists
  • Karo Duro
    Lead Artists
  • Jessi Ujazi
    Lead Artists
  • Catherine Blackburn
    Lead Artists
  • Lola Flash
    Lead Artists
  • Siraj Jhaveri
    Key Collaborators
  • Project Type:
    Virtual Reality, Installation
  • Minimum Runtime:
    5 minutes
  • Maximum Runtime:
    25 minutes
  • Average Runtime:
    20 minutes
  • 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.
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    200,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Student Project:
    No
  • FIVARS (Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories)
    Toronto
    Canada
    September 15, 2023
    World/International Premiere
Distribution Information
  • The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Sadah Espii Proctor, Valentina Vargas

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".

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