Sindicato virtual de Mods / Virtual Union of Mods (Latin American compilation) + Rebellious chair

Software is capable of creating new visual environments, new soundscapes, and ultimately new immersive worlds. Sound environments, and augmented and virtual reality technologies may be used to hint at forms of social utopias, like The Virtual Union of Mods by Guim Camps.

As indicated in its title, the project tells a fictitious story of a non-existent worker’s union. This association is dedicated to collecting, ordering and classifying the images and imaginaries of the community of video gamers who design mods (short for 3D modifications), in particular of public transport, protests and urban cartographies. Creators of game modifications work on short-term projects, without contracts or under irregular conditions, sometimes as amateurs, sometimes as professionals, and without actually building careers.

A screen in the exhibition displays a video of mods that reflect on the ways the working class of the Global South is being represented. This particular compilation focuses on mods in Latin America, where the main means of transport are buses for this stratum of society. The screen is placed on a rebellious gamer’s chair which, instead of brand logos, portrays social movements, like BLM, Antifa, Dis4ia (an indie LGTBQ+ video game), an indigenous Whipala flag, the logo of Game Workers Unite, the funeral of right-wing adopted cartoon character Pepe the Frog, etc.