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Third World invites players into a fantastical and disorienting world populated with Massan’s digital sculptures, bespoke animation, films, and camerawork, accompanied by sound developed with his collaborators. The game uses world-building and collaborative storytelling to challenge colonialist concepts of ‘exploration’, ‘nature’ and ‘knowledge’ to encourage a different kind of wayfinding.  

Developed in dialogue with the artist’s interests in decentralised knowledge exchange, fictional archaeology, ecology, and the critical role that collective memory plays in constructing futures, Third World is a platform for Massan’s collaborations with artists, technologists and thinkers.  

Alongside artist Gabriel Massan’s digital sculptures, textures, and concept development, the game features artistic contributions by Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Novíssimo Edgar, sound design by LYZZA, and work from Masako Hirano, Marchino Manga, Ralph McCoy, Carlos Minozzi, Iraj Montasham, Alexandre Pina, and Sweet Baby Inc. 

Each level or “episode’ in the game is conceptualised by a featured artist who worked in collaboration with Massan to bring themes central to their practice into the lore of Third World. Playing as characters ‘FUNFUN’ and ‘BUBURU’ – agents deployed to the ‘Third World’ by a resource extraction organisation, as you navigate these kaleidoscopic and disorienting realms, you encounter not only new lifeforms, languages, and ways of knowing, but also an increasing reckoning with your own actions. A worldbuilding platform in which a multitude of stories and perspectives converge, Third World invites you to raise your awareness of other ways of being through play, and to embrace the idea of ecosystem as a true ‘main character’.

Built on Tezos, Third World’s accompanying Web3 strategy will expand the game’s reach into online player communities by building an active and ongoing archive of gameplay.

Third World was originally commissioned as part of the ongoing Artist Worlds series. 

About & Credits

Credits

Third World: The Bottom Dimension
Lead Artist, Creative Director, 3D Sculptor, Concept: Gabriel Massan
Featured Artists: Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Novíssimo Edgar, LYZZA
Sound Design: LYZZA
Unreal Development: Alexandre Pina, Marchino Manga & Ralph McCoy
Capture Mode Development & Unreal Consultant: Iraj Montasham
Animation, Cinematography & Film VFX : Carlos Minozzi

Additional Cinematography: Alexandre Pina
Graphic & UI Design: Masako Hirano
UV Mapping Support: Christina Anagnostou
Writing & Narrative Design Support: Sweet Baby Inc
Translator: Adriana Francisco
Mastering Engineer: Rainy Miller
Curator: Tamar Clarke-Brown
Producer: Róisín McVeigh

Commissioned and Produced by Serpentine Arts Technologies
Powered by Tezos.

Arts Technologies, led by:
Tamar Clarke-Brown (Curator, Commissions)
Roisin McVeigh (Associate Producer)
Kay Watson (Head of Arts Technologies)

with
Alex Boyes (Producer, Arts Technologies), Eva Jaeger (Curator, Arts Technologies), Victoria Ivanova (Strategic Lead, Arts Technologies), Sarah Hamed (Assistant Exhibitions Curator)

Third World: The Bottom Dimension uses Unreal® Engine. Unreal® is a trademark or registered trademark of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Unreal® Engine, Copyright 1998 – 2023 Epic Games, Inc. All rights reserved.

About Artist Worlds

Artist Worlds is an ongoing series of commissions and live events that support artistic practices that engage with simulated realities, immersive story-telling and virtual world-building. The projects invite audiences into new artist-built virtual worlds to explore and discover their practices, processes and ideas, and contribute through collaboration and co-creation.

Artist Bio

Gabriel Massan

Gabriel Massan (b. 1996, Brazil) is a multidisciplinary digital artist. Combining storytelling and world-building techniques, Massan creates digital worlds and sculptures that alternatively simulate and narrate situations of inequality within the Black-Indigenous Latin American experience. Working across 3D animation, digital sculpting and painting, single-player games, NFT’s, and virtual and augmented reality experiences, the artist investigates notions of strangeness and ignorance in how the ‘Third World’ is imagined. Gabriel was a 2019 resident at the ETOPIA – Centre for Art & Technology, invited artist of the 2020 “IMS Convida” at the Instituto Moreira Salles (IMS), Circa x Dazed ‘Class of 2021’ Selected Artist, contributor of the “Rotten TV“ online research platform supported by “The British Council Digital Collaboration Fund”, 2022 The Photographers’ Gallery “Open Space“ Commission artist and 2022 X Museum’s “X Art District (XAD) Selected Artist. Recent exhibitions include: ‘WORLDBUILDING: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age’ (Julia Stoschek Collection: Dusseldorf, 2022); ‘Canon!’ (Frieze No.9 Cork Street, 2022) and ‘Possible Agreements’ , (Mendes Wood DM, 2022). 

Featured Artists

Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro

Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro (b. 1996, Brazil) is an AfroBantu visual artist, writer, and psychologist who has  a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, and belongs to an AfroBantu family lineage. Her works include photography, video, dance, painting, and installation (temples). With her artistic and academic practice, Castiel is interested in studying the principle of Transmutation as an unavoidable destiny. For this, she dribbles, incorporates, and immerses herself in the Bantu ontology, embracing healing [cura] as a perishable moment of freedom. Currently, Castiel studies and builds interspecific spirituality and ancestry. 

Novíssimo Edgar

Novíssimo Edgar (b.1993, Brazil) is a ‘multi-artist’: —a rapper, poet and creator of upcycled masks and costumes., Novíssimo appeared in the Brazilian urban scene in 2018 with his debut album “Ultrassom“. As a compulsive creator, he has made books,  drawings, performances, installations, games, and NFTs, producing work that speaks to freedom, as a speculative exercise committed to an urgent futurism, passing through various supports and segments of metalanguage and transmedia research. 

LYZZA

LYZZA (b. 1999, Brazil) is a producer and vocalist who has always been keen on mocking boundaries. Carving a space for herself in Electronic Music since her 2017 EP ‘Powerplay,‘ LYZZA has since traversed the sonic world showing her artistic potency, with multiple collaborations ranging from Showstudio and Mugler to producing for billboard-nominated songstress Emel Mathlouthi. In recent years, LYZZA has been widely hailed as one of electronic music’s most promising young avant-pop producers. 

Production Team

UI and Graphic Designer - Masako Hirano

Masako Hirano (b.1993, Japan) is a Japanese visual artist, art director and graphic designer living and working between London, Berlin, and Tokyo. Her unique style is rooted in her experiences growing up as a child in Thailand and her experience as a ‘third culture kid’ after moving back to Japan.  

Unreal Developer - Marcinho Manga

Marcinho Manga (b.1984, Brazil) is an Unreal developer, game designer, illustrator, and founder of Manga Games Studio. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Game Design from Anhembi Morumbi University. 

Unreal Developer - Ralph Mccoy

Ralph Mccoy (b. 1987, Brazil) is an Unreal Developer, teacher and enthusiast of the digital universe who is passionate about developing worlds and creating stories. Always looking for interactivity and immersion, selected projects include 3D modelling work for the animated movie ‘GadgetGang in Outer Space’ (2013-2015), developing the game that birthed the celebrated music video for Prêmio Nobel’ together with multi-artist Novíssimo Edgar (2021), and developing the game ‘Iroko’ for the Festival Imersivo das Favelas with artist Gabriel Massan. 

Animation, Cinematography & Film VFX - Carlos Minozzi

Carlos Minozzi (b. 1990, Brazil) is a technical artist and cinema graduate based in Berlin, who works with procedural tools, simulations, animations, and real-time renders. Minozzi has been part of VR exhibitions, produces content for big-screen festivals and is interested in new technologies that push the boundaries of 3D art. 

Unreal Producer & Cinematography - Alexandre Pina

Alexandre Pina (b. 1990, Brazil) is an artist and developer who is curious about digital processes and virtual experiences, producing work at the intersection between film, 3D animation and interactive projects. Selected highlights include participation in the research group on Photographic Technologies at Parque Lage Art School (2019); producing his film VIDEORETRATOS (2020), producing and directing the game that birthed the celebrated music video for  ‘Prêmio Nobel ’ together with the multi-artist Novíssimo Edgar (2021), and being awarded one of the first digital artist residencies at Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro (2022).  

Capture Mode Developer & Unreal Consultant - Iraj Montasham

Iraj Mohtasham (b. 1999, Iran) is an unreal engine developer. He is mostly focused on creating plugins for unreal engine, most of which are open source.

Press

Press Release

Arts Technologies October Announcement: Artist Worlds & FAE3