MetaVessel

Artist
Rhett Tsai

Creation media and date
Color digital animated video, 2022

Description
MetaVessel is a 3D video work reflecting on the metaverse, in which the main character Joe is about to encounter a flood “OpenSea” caused by the fracture between virtual and reality. In this flood, only the lucky few who successfully board the giant ark “MetaVessel” can survive. Joe and other humans have to undergo virtual reality training, obtain the boarding credential “MetaMask Fox Mask”, and get the positive nasopharyngeal swab test of the MetaVessel to board the ark to survive.
The work discusses the collapse of the balance between virtual and reality under the trend of the metaverse, the emerging hierarchical order after being reshuffled by the metaverse, and the new post-human identity after being reorganized by the new order. The nasopharyngeal swab test in the video is also a darkly humorous metaphor for the current reality: is the swab that stabs the nostrils again and again in ordinary life to cause a minimal but important physiological pain the Sword of Damocles for humans to escape from reality and move to the virtual world?

元方舟

艺术家
蔡宇潇

创作媒介及年份
彩色单频三维影像，2022年

作品简介
《元方舟》（MetaVessel）是一件反思当下元宇宙（metaverse）的三维影像作品，影像的主人公乔（Joe）即将遭遇一场由虚拟驱逐现实而引起的大洪水「OpenSea」。在这场洪灾中，只有极少数成功登上巨舰「元方舟」的幸运儿才能存活，乔和其他人类不得不通过接受虚拟现实培训、取得上船凭证「MetaMask狐狸面具」、通过「元方舟」鼻咽拭子 positive（阳性／积极性）测试以上船求生。
作品对元宇宙潮流下虚拟-现实平衡关系的溃败、被元宇宙洗牌之后的新兴等级秩序以及被新秩序重组后的新后人类身份进行讨论，影像中的鼻咽拭子测试亦是对当下现实黑色幽默般的隐喻：平凡生活中一次次刺向鼻孔引发微乎其微却关系紧要的生理痛感的拭子，是否是人类一步步逃离现实、移居虚拟的悬顶之剑（the Sword of Damocles）？