Illustration |

Multiverse Capriccio

Liangwen Qin

Artist Statement

●Theme&Intention

👉🏻Keyword: Meta-universe; deconstruction

The key words of my project are metaverse and deconstruction. Definitions of the real world are shaped by ideologies, and ideologies are fluid, so we should be critical, keep thinking, and deconstruct stereotypes as society changes. When it comes to social change, I think of a very popular concept at the moment — the meta-universe. With the technology of the future, perhaps everyone will be able to build their own society and move around freely. So, what kind of definition are we going to see? Are these definitions completely at odds with what we see in real life? By looking at these different definitions, combined with the social context of the corresponding universe, we may understand that what we believe is not necessarily true, and that so-called “truth” can be broken down and deconstructed. What I want to create in this project is to depict some possible prototypes of the meta-universe through digital illustration and worldview setting.

●Process

I started by brainstorming about the schedule and process and writing down a dozen possible meta universe worldviews. In general, the world view contains the definition of gender, the universal character and aesthetic concept, daily hobby, rich and poor, and so on, I wrote more than one hundred words for each worldview of overview, and began to imagine and think: how can I go to visualize these ideas? I’m trying to show a world, and I can’t paint all the details, so it’s more about showing my main message: what do I want people to deconstruct from these illustrations? Therefore, in my illustrations, I am more describing a symbolic scene.

●Display&Presentation

I created 10 illustrations, each representing a universe with different values than the real world. I hope to make a game with this project to let the audience better immerse in the world I created. The audience can select a random number from one to ten, and then I will show the universe corresponding to this number. The audience needs to complete the tasks corresponding to this universe to experience the world view of this universe, so as to reflect on the real world. I will following show world view introduction and game rules of each illustration, as well as the overview of the installation with ai-generated audio.

world view introduction

001 — Play is Work

With the meta-universe, studying and working is no longer the only way to make a living. In this universe, your daily task is to play a variety of games, the system will extract the brain hormone secreted when you win, this hormone is the energy of the universe, you submit the hormone to receive profits and rewards. Please choose one to three competitive games, work from 9 am to 5 PM to play games, and win at least 10 times. If you fail to achieve your goal on that day, you will consider yourself a failure and need to start again on another day.

002 — Matriarchal Society

The universe was created as a matriarchal society. There was no transition from matrilineal to patrilineal society because humans did not experience farming or nomadic societies. The beauty standards of men and women in this universe are inverted from reality. Women regard power as beauty, while men need to wear flowing soft clothes and elaborate makeup to please women. The meta-universe only has immigration rights until the age of three, and as an alien, you want to sneak in undetected. Go out for an hour in cross-dressing and socialize like you normally do.

003 –Truman World

This meta-universe was created by aliens, and everyone here is alien in disguise, except you, who are the only human in this universe. Aliens have raised you from an embryo, morphed their appearance into a human, and studied you by living with you, so you’ve been living on “The Truman Show” since birth. Everyone around you seems to be staring at you. Now that you have doubts about the world, the way to test your doubts is to slip a viral electronic chip on your “parent” back and hide it from them for a day. The style of the chip is up to you to decide and make. Well, now it’s time for you to start testing it out.

004 –Wealth and Appearance

The founder of this universe was once a tramp in the real world. Fortunately, he became wealthy later on, but he still retained some of his original habits. And people still judge and discriminate against him based on his representations. So he tries to deconstruct and laugh at this absurd world in this universe. Here, the more shabby and old, the more representative of the rich and powerful class. You need to dress like a tramp for fine dining. Your behavior is perfectly decent. The only difference is your appearance. So what do other people think of you?

005 — Beauty and Ugliness

This meta-universe was built by people who suffered from lookism in the real world. Although they are free to change their appearance in the meta-universe, they do not want to. In this world of aesthetics, the judgment of beauty and ugliness is exactly the opposite of the real world, and everyone takes pride in creating a so-called “ugly” face. As someone who is looking for a mate in this cosmic universe, please observe if there are people around you who have suffered from facial shaming or discrimination. Please send flowers to everyone who has been attacked as “ugly” in the real world.

006 — Kingdom of Introverts

The universe was created by people who were not good at socializing. In this universe, silence and social distancing are virtues, and socializing too often is criminalized. There are no group discussions, no parties, no nightclubs, and even single stalls for meals. As a resident here, please keep the above rules for one day. No greeting, no small talk, keep strangers at arm’s length, use restaurants with one stall when eating out, never use phone calls when you can text.

007 –Animal-Dominated Society

This meta-universe is created and dominated by animals. Of course, with their advanced civilization, they don’t treat humans as food, just as second-class citizens here. During the day, as a human living here, if you have a pet in your house, please remember that this is not your pet but your noble roommate, please speak respectfully to it every time you meet, prepare its meals carefully, knock on the door and invite it to eat with you at the table. If you don’t have a pet, say hello to every animal you walk by on your way out. Note that it is a crime to kill a bug if you step on it, and of course, you are not allowed to eat animal meat on this day.

008 –The Mirror World

Everything you feel in this world is the opposite. Your handedness, the colors you see, your sense of taste, the logic of what you say. The world was created by people with certain cognitive problems such as left-handedness/color blindness/impaired taste etc. They want to see if they can live comfortably in a mirror world. You, as a member of the group, are requested to use no dominant hand for one day/eat sweet rice or salty desserts/paint or dress in the opposite color as usual.

009 –Nostalgic World

This universe was built by nostalgic people. They have feelings and filters for things of the old days and think they were better than they are now. So they built a universe that was exactly like the old way of life. Take a day to find out about the old ways of life in your culture, such as the way of speaking and greeting, the customary food, the popular dress, and the way of washing. And live that way for a day. To truly feel the good and bad rather than blindly think that a certain era of culture is always good.

010 — Cloud Drive

This is an extremely efficient universe. All of the world’s information is stored in a data cloud, which connects the brains of all residents and synchronizes the classified information to the brain database of people of the corresponding occupation at any time. You are a newcomer who just came to this universe and has not yet connected to the data cloud disk. Facing the constantly updated information in the world, you are very anxious to see others updating their knowledge all the time. In today’s complex and fragmented information age, how should we face our anxiety about knowledge reserve? Do we really need so much information? Even if we are not anxious, can we escape the endless notifications from our devices? Moreover, if we are all automatically categorized by the system and then pushed the same information, will we be trapped in an information cocoon, molded by capital into what they want, and lose our uniqueness? On this day, you need to record the information that is pushed by each app on your phone and analyze whether the news is really useful to you.