Most Dismal Swamp presents “MUSH”

The term MUSH (Multi-User Shared Hallucination) is a term derived from the field of online text-based role-playing games. It refers to the communal investment in and social codification of a shared gamespace. In that sense, “MUSH” explores the emerging long-tail of community-building, or ‘gangcrafting’. The work explores the arcane and encrypted cultures that flourished among the recesses of an online megalopolis and reinforced by offline organisation and social balkanization

Most Dismal Swamp is a model for curating, collaborating and convivial speculation; a modular and miasmic crew. Operating at multiple scales and registers, Most Dismal Swamp is an art project, a curatorial MMORPG, a fiction, a party, a mixed-reality biome and an independent record label.

Credits:

Directed by Most Dismal Swamp Edit and FX by Stephen Mclaughlin & Most Dismal Swamp

Semelparous installation by Joey Holder (Produced by Julia Greenway)

Exudater installation and Unreal Engine 5 development by Samuel Capps

MUSH remixes by Lou Shafer, Tissue Hunter, Kaymeera, Stephen Mclaughlin, Aquabubz

Additional 2D animation by Most Dismal Swamp

3D figures by Olia Svetlanova Silicone garments by vvxxii & Johanna Invrea

Sweatshirts by Iain Ball

Jewellery by Timothy Gasbarro

Sculptures by Hannah Rose Stewart, Agnieszka Szostek, Yiming Yang, Sian Fan, Laura Costas

Spirits Gravity drawings by Matt Cangiano

Choreography by Laila Majid and Most Dismal Swamp

Performers: V Shetsova, Luke Magill, Fure, Lora Angelova, Susanne Husebø

Camera by Julia Brown

Semelparous shoot assistant: Emma Finn

Phonecams: Kat Thiel & Most Dismal Swamp

Words by Most Dismal Swamp

Voice by Michelle Hannah

Music by FRKTL