STARTED: 2019

END DATE: FALL 2024 (Currently touring to festivals)

PLATFORM: Meta Quest 2 and 3
ASPECTS: VR interactive narrative experience
WEBSITE

“Diatribes” is a poetic VR experience that explores the internal conflicts that arise when we’re confronted with the reality of climate change. 

STORY:

Diving into a surreal mindspace, you must navigate through anxiety in an obstacle course of distractions. Push past barriers, traverse varied landscapes, and unlock ancient myths throughout your journey. Will you be able to break through your emotions and find a way forward?

FORMAT:
The first prototype was completed in 2019 for the HTC VIVE and a vertical slice of the game was completed in early 2022 for the Oculus Quest 1. The final version is an interactive game made for the Quest 2 and 3. It can be played standing or sitting. The player completes tasks and navigates the soundings to move the story forward. The game is currently in the beta stage and will be released to marketing in the summer of 2024.

TEAM:

Veronica Graham – Director / Writer / 3D Artist 

Julia Kim – Music Composition / Sound Designer

Holly Newlands – Gameplay Programmer / Technical Artist

Sharleen Chen – Creative Lead / Interactive Design / 2D Artist

Megan Clement – Voice Actor

FRAME STILLS:

Real Milk

Screen printed on matte Dura-Lar film and clear plastic hardcover. Digital offset printed on Glama Natural vellum text.

7 in x 10 in x 1/3 in, 63 pages.

Edition 100

Signed

2023

by Ryan Kuo and Veronica Graham

Real Milk is based on real-life “smart” dairy farms, where cows milk themselves using milking robots. This technology is said to benefit the cow, who is thought to be happier because she can produce milk on her own schedule. Most importantly, the milk tastes better because it is more pure. Real Milk shows multiple intersecting perspectives: the farming systems that guide the cow’s behavior; the cow who is quietly passing through these systems; and the disembodied voice that sells the story of bovine empowerment (and maximum yield). These perspectives visibly overlap across the translucent pages of the book, forming a complex picture. Ultimately, what seems like autonomy is really automation.

Each page of Real Milk is composed using interlocking “Wang tiles”. This mathematical system consists of 16 square tiles that can be endlessly combined without forming any repeating patterns. For decades, Wang tiles and similar graphical systems have been used in video games from Pac-Man to Stardew Valley to draw maps that suggest coherent worlds extending beyond the frame. In Real Milk, the sprawling tiles illustrate the cow’s dream of freedom, as well as hint at the unseen rules that structure her dream. They also provided a unique way to collaborate for Veronica Graham, who drew the Wang tile sets; and Ryan Kuo, who recombined and arranged Veronica’s tiles into full page layouts. Neither person could completely predict what shapes would form. Together with the computer, they worked toward an uncertain end, letting the system finish their thought.

Not Quite Fatal

2022

These are photos from the Most Ancient installation at Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO. This work was part of the Not Quite Fatal group exhibition, curated by Chelsea Smith.

“Bringing together the work of visual artists practicing in printmaking, sculpture and drawing, Not Quite Fatal engages with our current collective state of climate grief and environmental anxiety. Exploring a range of artistic responses and personal identities, artists Flannery Cashill, Julio Del Rio, Ocean Escalanti, Luis Estrada, Most Ancient, Gilvon Greer and Danielle Wright addresses place/displacement within the environment and the urgency of community care.”

Ice Breakers

Risograph printed, saddle stitch with soft cover.

7.25 in x 9.5 in, 28 pages

2021

Ice Breakers is the third installment for Weather Reports, a series of seasonal “spell” books that are part comic strip and part visual poem. It captures the emotional ups and downs of daily existence through the use of humor, cultural references, political theory, personal narratives, and sequential art. This version took the entirety of 2020 to complete and is a reflection on a time that is distinct from what came before.

Water SIMs

2020

Description: Water SIMs is part of the “Calming Video” series, short time-based work that is a celebration of non-action in a world obsessed with productivity. They are inspired by writings from Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu. In “Water Sims” a translation of Lao Tzu words about water’s passive mutability stream across a collage sequence of water simulations. The water we see is a poor replica of the original, but the value of simulations lies in the process of repetition not in the result. Understanding is achieved by observing differences.

Sound: Julia Kim
Visuals: V.A. Graham

Two Potted Plants In A World Without Nature

2020

Description: “Two Potted Plants in a World Without Nature” is about the transformative power of being tethered to one place. The cyclical rising and falling of the plants mimic the deep breathing exercises used to detect sensations in our bodies. A grid of repeating animations sway between moments of harmony and discord creating a constantly shifting visual awareness on the screen. These visuals were composed using analog video synthesizers during a residency at Signal Culture (NY). This video is designed to lull viewers into a hypnotic introspection.


Sound: Julia Kim
Visuals: V.A. Graham

Play through video of the first prototype of “Diatribes”

Diatribes: Early Prototypes

2019

PLATFORM: HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

An early demo for “Diatribes” premiered in Fall 2019 at Kala Art Institute as a roomscale VR experience housed inside an installation of 3D and 2D concept art. Over the course of 2 weeks visitors were invited to play test the game and give feedback to the design team.

“Diatribes” is a Most Ancient production. This early prototype was a collaboration with designer  Veronica Graham, programmer Holly Newlands, and sound artist Julia Kim.

To see the latest information about the project visit the “Diatribes” webpage.

Global Warming Agitprop Posters

started 2020, ongoing project

13in x 19in, screen print

A series of black light posters that I think of as global warming agitprop. The posters employ a deliberately ambiguous language to describe an unstable present. Their dark messages are set against a phosphorescent backdrop, suggesting an ominous, reality-altering event on the horizon.

The Zium Garden

A Virtual Museum Exploration Game on itch.io for PC and Mac.

2018

Two interactive environments created for the The Zium Garden, a collaborative project with 50 different artists. The first one is  “T.M.O.N.B. Sequenced”, a series of undulating murals that players can walk through. The second is “The Amphitheater”, a public space designed to emphasize the relationship between the singular and the many.

NAT vs CIV

NAT vs CIV

Risograph printed, perfect bound.

2019

5.5 x 4.25 inches, 48 pages.

NAT vs CIV is a series of comic storyboards for a walking simulator game. Readers are taken on a narrated journey through an arena room, where Nature and Civilization are locked in an endless battle.