alternate universe: visualizing queer futurisms from February 10, 2022 to April 6, 2022 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Mollie Goldman
A key work in the Stamp Gallery’s current exhibit alternate universe: visualizing queer futurisms is Sin Sol / No Sun by micha cárdenas. This is an augmented reality video game that immerses players in a world marked by more advanced effects of climate change. In her description of the game, cárdenas highlights her intention of illustrating “how climate change disproportionately affects immigrants, trans people and disabled people.”
While artwork often tells a story, Sin Sol / No Sun actually takes players through a ten-part poetic storyline fifty years in the future. By navigating a complex virtual space via the downloadable Sin Sol / No Sun app or an in-gallery tablet, participants experience a new world through the perspective of Aura, the game’s holographic, trans, and Latina protagonist. Aura and her dog, Roja, embark on an interspecies quest to escape climate change-induced wildfires in an environment created from 3D scans of a modern-day Pacific Northwestern forest. The pair flee the wildfires together and, in their pursuit of survival, they come across oxygen capsules that contain poetic fragments of their story. With this knowledge, viewers can experience the progression of environmental collapse and connect the unfolding events with the information shared in the capsules.
“It is so good to see you.
To know my words made it through time
To reach another heart, unthawed
Still a smoldering ember.”
In this piece, technology allows for the coalescence of visual art, storytelling, poetry, sound, and activism. Sin Sol / No Sun embodies the concept of “futurisms” within alternate universe both through the exploration of an impending catastrophe and also through the use of artificial intelligence technology to produce a magnificent, interactive world for viewers. Sin Sol allows viewers to look through their phone screens and see their own world with added virtual elements. These additions encourage movement and exploration through a physical space in order to piece together a story and begin a quest to survive.
Part of the app’s major appeal is the integration of participatory exploration into the narrative. Viewers experience the story as it unfolds and actively search for oxygen capsules with Aura and Roja. In this way, the audience partakes in the protagonist’s efforts to survive, which further intensifies the story.
Sin Sol / No Sun is a beautiful and immersive experience that educates viewers about the future of climate change, but it is also part of the future of art itself. Modern technological advances like this app enable viewers to do more than look; they encourage viewers to act. Through technology, cárdenas is able to convey her message and educate viewers with a much stronger impact.
micha cárdenas’ work is included in Alternate Universe: Visualizing Queer Futurisms at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from February 10, 2022 to April 6, 2022.
Download Sin Sol from the App Store.
For more information on Alternate Universe: Visualizing Queer Futurisms and related events, visit https://thestamp.umd.edu/stamp_gallery