A multimedia art installation created by Calder Anderson & Ryka Ali with original music compositions by Calder Anderson.
Our modern world is disintegrating rapidly, our lives increasingly spent on the internet, our collective reality becoming more and more digitized. As a result of this, we experience constant and overwhelming fear, conditioning, surveillance, and stimulation. This has resulted in a society that has become numb to what shapes the collective human experience. We find ourselves searching for distraction through the use of technology and social media, craving dopamine stimulation to provide feeling in a sea of conflict and indifference. As our attention spans decay and our identities become algorithmically distorted, we find ourselves trapped in a cycle of overstimulation that numbs rather than awakens. We have become immersed in consumer capitalism and aesthetic experiences, which we dive into most passionately. If we truly want to protect our mental integrity and livelihoods, we must examine the aspects of contemporary culture related to the struggle for power and the aspects of culture that dull our mental awareness by taking advantage of our malleability, which so easily leads us into the mental death of totalitarianism.
Ultranet interrupts this cycle by flooding the senses with visceral imagery that elicits an emotional response in the viewer, resisting the passivity that defines modern media consumption. Through this, we can begin to interpret the shapes in the constellation of our collective grief. Ultranet is a feedback loop of trauma and healing, forcing users to feel again—to process, to remember, to awaken. Ultranet is not just an escape but a rebellion against the indifference of our lives.