Undergraduate students of the Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rijeka (APURI) joined the 21st edition of the Moje, tvoje, naše (Mine, Yours, Ours) event, organized and produced by the Drugo more association, building upon the group exhibition The World is Sleepwalking by curator Danijela Cotimbo.

Starting from the theme of the exhibition, namely the reality we describe as waking dreaming, in which deepfakes, memes, generative artificial intelligence, and fragments of post-internet visual culture merge into an uninterrupted stream of images, the students developed their own original works in collaboration with Drugo more. Through a dialogue with the works of the exhibiting artists (Zach Blas, Most Dismal Swamp / Dane Sutherland, and Silvia Dal Dosso), the student responses explore themes of artificial intelligence, deepfakes, brainrot, post-truth, ideological rift, hallucinatory worlds of platform-mediated culture, and the symbolic systems that form within it – from ancient Celtic and Slavic symbolism to new internet icons like 67 or Skibidi Toilet.

The students Laura Barac, Katja Butorac, Arijana Grubišić, Anamaria Horvacki, Leona Kirasić, Andrea Kolak, Petra Korač, Aoife O’Shea, Morena Pavlović, Nuri Pires, Lucija Prpić, Nádia Sousa, Antonia Sverić, and Maja Šimić responded using a wide range of media and poetics. Certain works exist in the space of virtual reality, where perception loses its foothold, while others use the classic comic book format to narratively unpack the logic of brainrot and AI-generated content. There are also works in the form of a video game concept and a dystopian world in collapse, as well as interactive installations that respond to the presence of the viewer and thematize the algorithmic shaping of visual reality. There are web-based works and net art that place the theme directly into the browser, as well as digital collages, illustrations, and interventions into famous works of art history into which characters born on social networks sneak.

Among the frequent motifs, the metaphor of the sea stands out, namely the internet as an endless expanse of water upon which the contemporary user “floats” and “fishes” for screenshots, but also as a resource whose quantities are silently consumed in the infrastructure of generative artificial intelligence. Alongside it appear portals and transitions into algorithmic systems, protective symbols, and ritual objects as a response to the invisible forces of the digital environment, the relationship between light and dark as a metaphor for filtered perception, and a blend of ancient and internet iconography in which Celtic and Slavic symbols of life, death, and rebirth meet the brainrot language of memes. Several works directly question content oversaturation and the need for a break, while others build entirely new dystopian universes with their own characters and mythologies.

The works were developed by the students under the mentorship of Assist. Prof. Boris Beja and Assist. Prof. of Art Mihael Giba. The project was conceived as a threefold task: a reflection on the theme of the exhibition, a dialogue with specific works by the exhibiting artists, and an exploration of one of the key media of the exhibition (video, installation, generative AI, net art).

The result is a diverse group of works that, each from its own angle, poses the same question raised by the event itself: can we turn the currents of waking dreaming into lucid dreams?
(Assist. Prof. of Art Mihael Giba)

Academy of Applied Arts, University of Rjeka · student work · mentors: doc. Mihael Giba, doc. Boris Beja