London’s Serpentine Galleries, ACUTE ART and Fortnite present “KAWS: NEW FICTION”, a new project in a physical and virtual space as well as in augmented reality, curated by Acute Art Director Daniel Birnbaum. The exhibition opened on 18 January and will be on view, online and at the Galleries, until 27 February 2022; The show is also running simultaneously on the videogame Fortnite, where gamers can explore the Serpentine Galleries and appreciate KAWS' iconic sculptures. A project that overcomes the real/virtual dualism: by downloading the Acute Art app, users can position and visualise the works in their surroundings, and share their experience on social media. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication with contributions by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Daniel Birnbaum and the American writer Alexandra Kleeman.

The VOICE GEMS META-MUSEUM is a new project by Harry Yeff (Reeps100) and Trung Bao, world-famous artists, musical experimenters and “technological creatives”. A proper Meta-Museum to store and exhibit “Voice Gems”, experimental audio files preserving voices as “gems”, in digital and 3D format, creating a system that “sculpts” over 200,000 particles with voice data similar to fingerprints. The colour and shape of each Voice Gem is generated directly from voices. Yeff and Trung created Gems using, among many others, the voices of Ai Weiwei, Felipe Pantone, Reggie Watts, Kenny Schachter, Lily Cole, Klause Schwab (executive chairman of the WEF), Sougwen Chung, Platon and Herbert W. Franke. The project has previously been presented at Art Basel Miami Beach 2021; König Galerie, Berlin; OÖ Art Museum, Linz. Eight gems will also be presented at the World Economic Forum.

Blockchain technology affects finance, governance, privacy, and not least art. The Musee Dezentral is an online project that plays with 3D technology to reimagine the ways in which artists and art collectors display and buy artworks, while offering visitors an immersive experience that transcends the boundaries of the physical space. NFT owners will be able to display digital art in a proper virtual museum created using a customised graphics engine that can be accessed with a simple smartphone or through more complex VR technologies. The exhibition “VOICE Community” is currently on view, curated by BrightLight & HA14SA.

On 31 March 2022, Tai Shani, Turner Prize-winning artist known for her large-scale immersive installations combining performance, film, writing and photography, will present a new work commissioned as part of the Virtual Factory series for Manchester International Festival. MIF has invited artists from around the world, particularly those from the universe of gaming, film and visual art, to explore the virtual as a “space of infinite possibilities” and imagine new responses to the architecture and vision of The Factory, a cultural space in Manchester. Tai Shani’s project “The Neon Hieroglyph” is the second in the series and the artist's first online work. Through nine “hypnotic” stories, Shani is continuing her ongoing research to create a feminist mythology of psychedelia, combining hallucinogenic projections with a soundtrack by Manchester-based composer Maxwell Stirling. 

UN/NATURAL SURROGATES is a virtual exhibition curated by Benjamin Egger and the artistic direction of Magdalena Kovarik, created for the Wrong Biennale and part of the research project “Postdigital Art Practices in Cultural Education” (PKKB). A virtual garden to test the relationship between digital world and affectivity through thirteen art works, some of which specifically realised for the exhibition. UN/NATURAL SURROGATES aims to explore new possibilities for interaction, navigation and curatorship in digital exhibitions. Exhibiting artists: Donna Conlon, Hannah Neckel, Jan Robert Leegte, Jocelyn Neumann, Judith Sönnicken, Katrin Petroschkat, Kenny Löffler, Lele Schlaich, Leo Lehner, Mariana Reinhardt, Marisa Olson, Martyna Poznańska, Meike Boekholt, Mit Borrás, Molly Soda, NEEEU, Renee Klaßen.