We sat down with Race Krehel, AKA SuperCyberTown to discuss Metamo Indutries, Ghosting, and Manekineko.
SuperCyberTown is a SE Asia based creative entity that utilizes cutting-edge technology in to bring inspiring visions of the world of tomorrow to life, today. With more than a decade of experience in visual effects, virtual reality, and interactive media, SuperCyberTown seeks to change the way that people perceive the world around them.Â
Tell us a little about the piece you’re presenting with Ghosting, Manekineko.
We’re super excited to be sharing our piece Manekineko with you all at the Ghosting, AR exhibition. A big thanks to Illust Space for getting us involved. The Manekineko character has been very dear to me for a while. It’s was kind of my first exposure to Asian pop culture when I was growing up. I’m a big cat guy, so I was kind of naturally drawn to it, and it’s been kind of my artistic persona or mascot, if you will. So for Ghosting, we gave it a nice auspicious gold special edition coat, which is meant to evoke prosperity, and hopefully some crypto wealth for all those involved.
How did translating this work into AR speak to your usual practice?
Translating Manekineko into AR was pretty straight forward for us. I personally have been involved in the AR/XR/VR space for about seven years now.
With Metamo Industries, our mission has always been to embrace cutting edge technologies in order to materialize digital art in unique ways, whether that’s through 3D printing or AR. So this was a great chance for us to teleport the character across the globe for more people to experience and interact with it.
Tell us how being in Singapore influences your work
It would be impossible to separate my creative vision from Singapore — that’s why I’ve been here for 13 years. It’s my main source of inspiration. Singapore is just an incredibly unique place on its own. It’s small, but it’s easy to get immersed into. It has a really amazing blend of history, modernity, and just different cultures in the region. It’s almost like a prism where external influences come in and get refracted and become their own unique thing, and that’s kind of what we try to carry on through our own artwork.
What positive things are you seeing come out of art on the Blockchain?
It’s an amazing new way to give people ownership and to empower independent and smaller artists. It’s an exciting time all around for the space. Just by chance, we’re actually participating in crypto art week, Asia, which is going on simultaneously over here around the region.
My first exposure to it was last year, selling a piece I did on the blockchain. I didn’t really know too much about it at the time, but it was an amazing learning experience and just a really cool new way to interact with a new community.
What are you looking forward to the most with Ghosting and Illust Space this summer?
We’re excited to be working with Illust Space. I think that they share a similar vision to Metamo Industries where they’re bringing a bit of physicality to their live shows and the virtual medium which really makes the whole experience more tangible. We’re really appreciative of the chance to get to participate, and we’re looking forward to interacting and chatting with everybody as the show goes on.