Paper short abstract:

Welcome To The Metaverse is a work of Multi-Modal Ambivalence that humorously uses Instagram’s augmented reality face filters to engage users while at the same time encouraging them to be deeply skeptical of the shared digital environment of the Metaverse.

Paper long abstract:

You have been sent a face filter that replaces your eyes and nose with those of other users of Instagram. A narrated voice commands that you blink, which signals your consent to the terms of service agreement. Instagram face recognition AI notices you frowning upon reacting to the news that Mark Zuckerberg has earned more than 12,000 in the 30 seconds or so that you have been using the face filter. You are given some cryptocurrency as an apology. You have been using Welcome To The Metaverse, a satirical work of research-creation that explores the politics of The Metaverse using augmented reality face filters inside Meta’s Instagram platform.

Welcome To The Metaverse responds to Astacio et al.’s manifesto for engaged makers to create work for “S@!#t Times” (2021). It is a work of Multi-Modal Ambivalence that humorously uses augmented reality filters to engage users, while at the same time encouraging them to be deeply skeptical of the shared digital environment of the Metaverse. The work also follows recommendations by Ina Sander for ways to increase Critical Big Data Literacy (2020) using interactive and personalized media. In the tradition of culture jamming and situationist detournement, it is an act of semiological guerilla warfare (Eco, 1986) against an increasingly centralized and extractivist social media environment.