From the 8th of September 2025, weekly, I participated in an art critique session that happened virtually in a metaverse. The critique session was organized by Loop Art Critique as part of their virtual residency, in which I was also selected, along with various artists. At the near-end of the residency, each artist prepared their spatial artwork and their own metaverse piece in which was later presented in a metaverse exhibition called "Mad World" that was open to public on 5th December 2025.

Link to the "Mad World" virtual exhibition space:

Mad World 2 | Loop Art Critique

Join others in VR at Mad World 2, right in your browser.

https://verse.loop.onland.io

The idea of making "Crumpled Cave" actually came from remembering a concept about a video art series that I planned in 2021, after I observed the movement and sound activity of the plastic bag after I crumpled it by hand. That video art series was never realized until today, and that is because of my lack of proper equipment and place, but after that, when I was about to make "Crumpled Cave", I then thought, 'Why don't I try this concept inside the metaverse and build something in it?'

Resonating to the concept of that video art series, I was fascinated with how the plastic bag 'unfolding' movement starts from a slightly fast movement until it gradually slows down. While it was unfolding, I also listened to the "crackly" sound that it made, and it immediately struck me.

I keep repeating this process, and I thought that this plastic bag somehow seems 'alive'. I feel like this plastic has its own 'natural' activity, like a plant, mushroom, or even a rock. I was thinking by myself, is this plastic is might be already considered as a natural thing in nowadays situations? Realizing how it's almost everywhere and it exists in so many forms, the largest one and the most tiny one (like microplastics).

I truly want to capture this and see how the various plastic bags or maybe plastic objects in general could make it's own natural activity, even when I understand that this is actually a synthetic thing.

Thus, "Crumpled Cave" was made as my early attempt to continue that concept and to see how it would go when it was finally formed.

Link to the "Crumpled Cave" space:

Crumpled Cave | Loop Art Critique

Join others in VR at Crumpled Cave, right in your browser.

https://verse.loop.onland.io

*This piece is intended to be experienced on a Laptop/PC.

"Inspired by a personal reflection on the aftermath of a plastic bag being held and squeezed, the bag then moved as if trying to return to its original shape, despite being crumpled, and created a crackling sound. I imagined the plastic's movement indicating a possible assumption that this plastic has a natural nature that might be very common in today's situation. Is it possible that plastic is similar to plants, fungi, or rocks that experience accumulated movement and disruption to form by itself and its surroundings?"

The main space was created by gathering found plastic bags and then used to form a temporary sculpture by crumpling them and arranging them as one arbitrary structure.

The sculpture was then AI-assisted, manually scanned through several attempts with different angles, until one that was the most preferred was chosen and exported as a digital 3D object. The final output gave the impression of a stone cave inside its cavity and a crumpled plastic texture on its outside surface.

Then, those single crumpled plastic bags were also scanned individually using different approaches. The first approach attempted to scan the original shape of the bags, while the second used AI-assisted scanning to obtain different forms of the original ones. These approaches created a sense of contrast pairing between the real plastic object and its other synthetic form.

These approaches were also applied to the main space. Besides the one main 3D object as the space, five other versions of it, plus the mini version of the main space, were used as part of the single objects within the space.

Before those single plastic bag objects were scanned, each of their sounds was recorded individually, resulting in the raw crackling sounds. These sounds were then being installed on each pair of scanned single plastic bag objects. Another sound was later added too, all the used plastic bags were also crumpled together and being recorded. Then the recorded tracks were manipulated to form the synthetic version of the plastic sounds, and then installed in each of the varied versions of the main 3D space. All of these sounds were present inside and outside of the main 3D space, creating a deep and subtle crackling soundscape.

Within the space, there are many scattered objects around the inside and outside of the "Crumpled Cave" space. Consisting of two paired single plastic objects as one, a miniature version of the whole cave space, and five other versions of it.

The whole soundscape within this whole space was created from each of the individual sounds that were installed on each object.

The audience is invited to explore and seek the objects through each sound. On the spawn point, there's also a stone structure with text and a moving white orb above it that emitted repeated sustained tones, which functioned as the central meeting point.

The main space itself is also minted as a 1/1 artwork within the "▒▒▒dreamRAM▒▒▒::newfangled verses" exhibition on OBJKT, taking it as a memento from an attempt to virtually transform plastic bags into something that is between a synthetic and a natural thing.

The exhibition is organized by MOWNA (Museum of Wild & Newfangled Art), and it is curated by Joey Zaza and cari ann shim sham.

Click the link below to see the artwork:

This "crumpled" project might not end here. I'm still thinking about some other experiments that I want to do with this concept, maybe a music album? Sound performance? Graphic scores? Generative art series? Making that video art series happen? We'll see.

This is my first writing on Paragraph. If you like what you read here and also my artistic works, consider supporting me by sharing this article or by anything that you prefer.

My deepest appreciation for reading this article until here.

Many blessings to you, dear reader.

I'll leave the link to the "Crumpled Cave" space again here, just in case you're tired of scrolling up again:

Crumpled Cave | Loop Art Critique

Join others in VR at Crumpled Cave, right in your browser.

https://verse.loop.onland.io

Rangga Purnama Aji, 2025.