X Virtual Gathering: Honey, a new project of X Museum's digital art platform X Virtual, was launched on Thursday in Beijing with an exhibition and a video game featuring commissions of multiple creatives from home and abroad.

Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are first grabbed by the electronic music laced with a buzzing noise playing in the game, the interface of which is projected on the wall. They are invited to pick up the controller to start the game, becoming a bee busy gathering honey.

As the worker bee, depicted in a futuristic, robotic and metallic style, flies through various apocalyptic landscapes, including a mysterious jungle and an erupting volcano, eight music pieces, which each represents a specific event, are triggered as it moves through different levels within the game, immersing the player in an adventure with a bee's perspective.

On view is also an installation by London-based artist Zhang Ling, better known as 00 Zhang, who designed the video game and its visual art. The audience can also enjoy the eight music works, individually displayed and each paired with a music video. Ranging from experimental electronic and dance music to free jazz and ambient, the intentionally diverse music tracks were composed by eight musicians, including 33EMYBW, Gooooose, Jana Rush, and Hyph11E.

"As an abstract medium, music alters and challenges the participant's senses, urging them to rethink ecological justice and species justice," said Wu Dongxue, X Museum's chief curator, who co-curated the show with 33EMYBW, a Shanghai-based producer and artist.

According to the curators, this project explores the vast, interconnected world of bees and how it influences ideas around ecology, human civilization, and capitalism. It is an urgent response to crises such as resource depletion and a net loss of biodiversity that we humans are faced with, as well as the slowly widening division between civilization and nature through technological revolutions.

"Once viewed with reverence, nature is now often exploited, stripped of its mystery and spirituality. Inorganic structures replace organic ones, pushing a capitalist narrative that centers on consumption and production," Wu said.

The game Honey will be available for download through X Museum's online platform. At the end of 2024, the project will also release an eponymous vinyl record, which will be distributed globally.

Launched by X Museum in 2019, X Virtual fosters new artistic 3D spaces within virtual worlds by commissioning artists to create new digital works and organizing online and offline exhibitions, workshops, and talks. X Virtual aims to promote new thoughts, discussions, and interdisciplinary practices in relation to emerging Web3-centered technologies, including XR, AI, and game engines.

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