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
