With its new Digital Extravaganza display, the Theatre of Digital Art in Dubai’s Souk Madinat Jumeirah hopes to welcome the future. The show, which runs until August 31, invites viewers to join a near-psychedelic journey through the senses that take them from Earth to the metaverse in a “new media wonderland.”
Synti, a 3D holographic figure coupled to a language bot — a young female robot figure — the theatre’s first digital model and visualization of artificial intelligence — introduces the six short film-like pieces, which are embodied within immersive three-screen surrounding displays.
A massive oversaturated beach, evocative of Dubai’s JBR Beach, serves as a backdrop for candy-colored satirical surrealism, hinting cynically yet jokingly towards an uncertain, apocalyptic future.
Consider horses in constant motion, wearing gas masks and Beats by Dre headphones, and being ridden by similarly-dressed muscular “knights” in gleaming purple and gold armor, the royal colors. Every hallmark and icon of so-called responsible consumerism is carried by these figures: a yoga mat, a selfie stick, an organic grocery bag, and a Macbook.
We are then taken on a brief tour of contemporary art projects that have recently been minted as NFTs and turned into 3D assets for Theatre of Digital Art’s Metaverse, all of which were chosen through an open call. A total of 238 submissions from 43 nations were whittled down to the top ten, which were presented alongside their QR codes so that viewers could learn more about how to collect them. Some of the projects were also designed with AR in mind.
While many of the deeper resonances and significance of digital art creation would be lost on less tech-savvy adults, it’s easy to envision them going right over the heads of children.
For younger viewers, though, the show is a visual joy, introducing them to the new boundaries of how continually increasing technology may be used and manipulated to create creative storylines, or simply exciting, new worlds. In Dubai, digital art and metaverse explorations, which include the growing saturation of NFTs in the art market, are on the rise, as evidenced by the addition of a digital section to the emirate’s largest art fair, Art Dubai.
A long-running event like Digital Extravaganza fits perfectly into a growing trend and provides an evening of adventure for art, crypto, tech, and NFT lovers, as well as ordinary families.
