Bard Meme Lab: DEEP STATE Multimedia Installation
DEEP STATE: Multimedia Installation by the Bard Meme Lab
December 3, 2022
Bard College, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Center, Integrated Arts Room
Artists: Ivy Knight, Rhayne Batista, McKinlay Daggatt, Isabella Haid, Levana Rashba
Performers: Sem Lala (Semka), Ivy Knight (DJ Ivy), Andy Santella (deerpark), Guy Bollin and Brandon Vanbach (VGA Boys)
Curators: Isabella Haid and McKinlay Daggatt
Deep State invites guests to swim through an ocean of content. Each piece is positioned in relation to the room’s compass: the North-South axis of the room marks a continuum of Engineered-Organic and the East-West marks Sexy-Godly. Insofar as this organization of space and content was inspired by r/futurecompasses, the placement of each work at a specific coordinate on the map dictates its interpretation. But that is not to say that a giantess lacks godliness, that masturbating is unnatural, or that vitamin supplements can’t be fathered by science. The linchpin of the project, Liver King—the god that came crashing down to Earth (see Liver King Shrine & Liver King Grave)—shows that content can hold a multitude of positions at once. His shrine marks his status as a god among men, while his grave marks his mortality and exposes his crime of fiction (steroid abuse). Deep State calls on viewers to recognize that distinctions like truth and fiction or virtue and sin are categories to be played with, limits which facilitate experiments in networked performance. It doesn’t matter if capital-T truth is or ever was real. We do not seek to contend with the authenticity or worth of these categories, but instead play with them and ride the crashing waves.
St. Johnny Stream, highly godly, highly engineered
A live stream of the interior of the Basilica at Ars Catholic church in France, which houses the entombed St. John Vianney. Accessed through Insecam, an online directory of security cameras and their live footage, this stream inhabited the NW corner of engineered godliness. It was played on a laptop that had been placed inside a short column, and could be viewed through a small opening in the pillar. This camera feed has since been removed from the site and is no longer public (here is the dysfunctional link).
CCTV CRTV, highly godly, highly engineered
Live feed of the room’s interior played back on a CRTV seated on top of the pillar which housed St. Johnny’s Stream.
By Isabella Haid
My Little Mecha, leans godly, leans engineered
Hello my dearest /transformers/
I come before you today to reveal a horrible accident to the Arcee Cum Jar Project. The place where I was hiding my cum jar were actually on top of a kind of radiator, that was connected to our furnace, and of course since it's getting colder we light it up. So basically the Arcee figure has been boiled in cum. It's brown now. And for comparison I have also got another glass of cum that's about a week old.
I will propably still bury it some day.
Yours, ACJP.
Ode to Cern, highly godly, leans organic
The Mandela Effect, an opened portal, the summoning of a sleeping demon, the end times. Ode to CERN encapsulates the incomprehensible and overwhelming act of what it means to build a miles-long tube under Goenevan grass that will hopefully allow us to understand dark matter.
By Ivy Knight
Persistence, highly sexy, leans engineered
The barrage of visual stimuli set to the beat of “The Teenager’s Homecoming” reflects the intensity of fat-girlhood in this age of media saturation. Oscillating between being ignored (Fat Girl, Le Bonheur, Melancholia), insecure (Girls, Vertigo, The Piano Teacher, Meshes of the Afternoon), stereotyped (Role Models, the Triplets of Belleville, Technology/Transformation: Wonderwoman), empowered (Real Women Have Curves, Shrill) and, ultimately, fetishized, the fast-paced cutting is rhythmically grounded by PornHub-sourced CGI giantess porn. The anxiety of the artist’s own entry into sexual life combined with this media backdrop is underscored by the seemingly infinite wealth of videos being circulated by the online giantess porn community.
By Rhayne Batista
Womyn’s Vitality, highly sexy, leans organic
Single batch of supplements for women’s vitality.
Contains: maca root powder to support energy levels and libido, fenugreek for lactation support, cranberry for urinary tract health, evening primrose for hormone regulation, and biotin to support hair/skin/nail health.
By McKinlay Daggatt
Girl Defined, purely godly
Say no to sex, say yes to biblical womanhood. Join Girl Defined’s Evangelical Christian community and find your voice in the culture war.
By Isabella Haid
Liver King Shrine, leans sexy, highly engineered
Commemorating his majesty in all his glory.
Liver King Grave, leans sexy, highly organic
Post-scandal pwn. Traditional RIP-themed memes photoshopped to grieve the Liver King’s loss of glory. Both images were taped to a tall pillar. Resting on this pillar was the projector playing Ode to Cern on the Godly wall.
By McKinlay Daggatt and Isabella Haid
