How can virtual environments help us imagine and build a better future? To answer this question, we have invited several artists to talk about their work in the framework of the L.E.V. Matadero 2024 festival, as part of the activities carried out with the support of the European project Realities in Transition, which seeks to promote dialogue and reflection on artistic creation in extended realities.

Designing virtual environments that are intended to be inhabited by people goes beyond pure usability. Both artists and cultural institutions have a responsibility to work towards common goals that address the main challenges we face as a society. To reflect on this, we will listen to the voices of three exceptional artists whose pieces are featured at the festival and whose work addresses the design of virtual environments from a committed perspective with the future.

On the one hand, Alice Bucknell, artist, writer and educator, with a particular interest in videogame engines and speculative fiction, will talk about her research work on the climate fiction project ‘The Alluvials’, which will be presented at MAD (Madrid Artes Digitales) during the festival.

Hsin-Chien Huang, digital artist and storyteller based in Taiwan, will talk about his long professional career and his interest in virtual environments as a means to experience empathy through stories that belong to other bodies. This can be experienced in the VORTEX section of the festival with his piece ‘The Eye and I’, which explores the theme of social surveillance by governments in a collaboration with Jean-Michel Jarre.

Lastly, Rick Treweek aka MetaRick, VR artist based in South Africa, whose characters and avatars created for his metaverse ‘Uncanny Alley’, inspire the hackathon that will take place during the festival, will talk about multiplayer virtual environments as spaces of intimacy and deep humanity.

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*Alice Bucknell and Rick Treweek will participate online, while Hsin-Chien Huang will attend in person to Matadero.