Bleeding into the Metaverse

Tuesday 18 July 2023

In Paradiso - Upstairs Room

Doors: 19:30, Main programme: 20:00

Dance against the machine!

Join Bleeding into the Metaverse in support of menstruation rights for all female & queer bodies.

In 2022, pioneering Japanese artist SPUTNIKO! launched her Menstruation Machine, a wearable in the 3D virtual world Decentraland. This sparked a clash between feminist politics and internet culture.

If allowed, it would have been the very first case of menstruation in the Metaverse. However, Decentraland developers rejected SPUTNIKO!’s avatar because menstrual blood failed their safety and age standards for users. The discussion around menstruation in the online world matters. The future of representation and body inclusivity is at stake. Creative studio affect lab took this as a call for action for digital inclusivity - join us in celebrating menstruating bodies in the Metaverse!

Bleeding Into the Metaverse is part of BLOODY BEAUTIFUL, a movement for lesser-heard stories about menstruation and menopause, curated by affect lab. In collaboration with Paradiso we invite you to a dance party where, together with SPUTNIKO!’s avatars and the dance tunes by mayo, we will dance (and bleed) into the metaverse as a protest against the online and offline cultures that restrict female and queer bodies.

Who designs our new realities and the possibilities of our bodies?
Will the Metaverse become a menstruation-free world?
What other parts of our identity will we lose in future virtual worlds?

Programme

SPUTNIKO! Will take us on a journey into her artistic practice including her film & digital art practice and her femtech work, in discussion with moderator Dymphie Braun.
The dance floor opens for a Bloody Beautiful dance party. In collaboration with creative technologist Babusi Nyoni (Triple Black), the audience will connect with a bleeding avatar to dance to the rhythm of the night with music by mayo. It’s going to be a first

BLOODY BEAUTIFUL is kindly supported by Creative Industries Fund NL, Vriendenloterij & Cultuur Loket DigitALL. The dance party is based on the Metaverses Cha-Cha-Cha experiment by the Toolkit for the Inbetween. The Bleeding avatars are designed by 3D modeler MISOSHITA.

Line-up

Upstairs Room

SPUTNIKO!
mayo
affect lab

SPUTNIKO! (Hiro Ozaki)

SPUTNIKO! (Hiro Ozaki) is a multimedia artist and filmmaker creating works around the themes of technology, gender and feminism. Her work has been exhibited at the MoMA, Centre-Pompidou Metz, V&A, the Cooper Hewitt, Mori Art Museum, and she was awarded Vogue Japan Woman of the Year in 2013. SPUTNIKO! taught at the MIT Media Lab as an Assistant Professor and was the director of the Design Fiction Group from 2013 to 2017. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Tokyo University of Arts. Hiro has also been selected as a TED Fellow and gave her TED Fellow talk in TED 2019. She was also selected as one of the Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum and moderated sessions in Davos 2020. To date, she has had her works included in the permanent collections of museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (UK) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan).

More about SPUTNIKO!

mayo

Amsterdam’s mayo is a musical multiped, whose path is rather unruly than unlogical. Her DJ sets, as well as her first releases, prove that she’s not easy to pigeonhole. With a focus on downtempo electronics, EBM and techno, she weaves together a wide array of musical styles.

Listen to mayo

affect lab

affect lab is an award winning creative studio and research practice led by Dr. Natalie Dixon and Klasien van de Zandschulp. In collaboration with an international artistic network, we use design research, immersive storytelling and experimental field work to inspire a more inclusive future.

More about affect lab

Babusi Nyoni

Babusi Nyoni is a Netherlands-based Zimbabwean creative technologist and social entrepreneur. He works at the intersection of emerging technology and culture. He advocates for underrepresented voices to lead the conversation on these topics, like his project Blackgirlhair.js, the first machine learning model that was trained to accurately identify black women’s hairstyles.

More about Babusi Nyoni

DIP (Tuesdays in Paradiso)

DIP is a free space in Paradiso's Upstairs Room where creatives have the opportunity to try out new ideas and experiment every Tuesday night. A place for talented organizations, collectives, artists, performers, makers, free birds and inventors to create their own interpretation of Paradiso's Tuesday nights.

Check out the full DIP programme here:

How to get to Paradiso

Paradiso is on the Weteringschans 6-8 in Amsterdam. That is very close to Leidseplein. From every part of the city there are trams heading towards Leidseplein. From there on out you can walk to Paradiso. Free and secured underground bike parking is available on the opposite side of Paradiso. Travelling by car is difficult, since there are only a few busy parking lots nearby.

Google Maps

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