This week we are transported to the surreal landscape of Alpha Tribe Tomorrow.

Creator Alpha Auer made Tomorrow a very large and immersive exhibit with a premise that is open to interpretation. If you think the attention to detail looks like that of an experienced professional, you are correct! Alpha is known as Elif Ayiter IRL and works as a designer and educator in Turkey.

She has co-authored the LPDT2/3 series of {region} wide installations based on Roy Ascott's concept of distributed authorship and La Plissure du Texte. These works were featured in international art exhibitions such as ISEA2011 and the 2010 multimedia festival at Incheon, Korea’s Tomorrow City.

The Tomorrow installation at Alpha Tribe has a surreal environment, with a unifying theme that Alpha describes as “an entropic world in which nothing is expected to ever change.” This appears to defy time, which is also a prominent element here: Alpha tells us “The landing point is 'Yesterday,' where all sorts of people are frolicking in an old garden. As for the narrow valley ahead of you, that is 'Today,' where the two hapless boys have just found a mysterious smartphone…”

Tomorrow is a mesmerizing blend of grey dystopia and childlike whimsy. The static characters include literal fat cats, humanoid sculptures, pigs, and even what Alpha describes as “The trickster god Kokopelli and his merry tribesmen... embodying the essence of 'Tomorrow’: blind belief. 

The notion of surveillance society is implied by watchtowers and drones, with Alpha saying “The {region} is an allegory. I am actually telling a pretty serious story, but I wanted to tell it in a humorous way, not get all miserable and dark about it.” The cartoonish tone is on purpose. Alpha says there is “a retro element to the figures, which is quite intentional since I love that mid-20th century period in design.”

For those curious about Alpha’s technique, she says “I made the mesh in Zbrush Core, and then took it to Blender for the final output. I spent most of my time with the textures which I made in Photoshop and then applied in Zbrush.”

There are too many details in this creation to mention, so we suggest just hopping over to Alpha Tribe Tomorrow to see for yourself. After your visit, don’t forget to check out Alpha’s store. It’s like a trip to the gift shop after a day at the museum.

Video Production Credits:
Draxtor Despres

Alpha Tribe Tomorrow

An allegorical world and its inhabitants: A tribe of fat cats, robotic administrators, poker-playing cats, philosopher cats, teddy bears having a picnic, flute players, and many others which are placed as the protagonists of a progression that starts from the region entrance and unfolds as you move into the ground level that is an archipelago of many islands upon which these characters are placed.

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