In times of the peak hustle culture when people are constantly on the verge of burnout and their digital personas never clock out, Beti Frim imagines an escape plan – an online retirement home for her generation of twenty-something girls.

An interactive virtual tree merges early-web nostalgia and Gen-Z humour, creating a calming sanctuary where users can turn away from the intense algorithms and enjoy the calmer, more secluded side of the internet. The project echoes the Dark Forest theory of the internet by Yancey Strickler, which draws from the idea that the internet has become a dark forest, where users wary of surveillance, harassment, and algoritmic oversaturation of information retreat into enclosed, private online communities.

Inside the hollow of the towering tree tiny rooms flicker with ironic memes, funny GIFs and anonymous notes touching upon ideas of burnout and retirement. Visitors are invited to send their own messages through the mailbox, connect with others users through shared notes, inside jokes and online references or to simply linger around the constantly switching content of the past and present internet culture.

Digital interface intertwines the aesthetic of early HTML pages and static online images from the first internet communities with a detailed virtual environment and 3D renderings of organic natural elements. For a generation raised on grindset delusions and monetized identities the tree serves as an utopian retirement home for our online personas we are all too tired to perform, creating a space where we can exist without likes, views and comments, connect with other users or just chill.

Beti Frim aka Pixel Bambi (2001) completed her Bachelor's degree in Visual Communication and continues her Master's degree in Video and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Her work focuses on the theme of coexistence by combining digital and analogue media in audio-visual narratives. By exploring post-internet aesthetics in combination with the natural, she seeks connections between different perspectives in a visually oversaturated world. In the field of visual art, she has exhibited as part of the platform Kres in osmo/za, participated in BIO28 with the collective Xenoscapers and in the 35th Ljubljana Graphic Biennial with her work From Moss-centric era. She is also active in the field of music, with audio-visual projects at festivals such as Sonica, Grounded, Niansa, Red Dawn, and with the collectives Ustanova and Nimaš Izbire.

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V času, ko so ljudje nenehno na robu izgorelosti, njihove digitalne osebnosti pa nikoli ne počivajo, si Beti Frim zamisli načrt za pobeg – spletni upokojenski dom za njeno generacijo dvajsetletnic.

Interaktivno virtualno drevo prepleta nostalgijo zgodnjega interneta in humor generacije Z ter ustvarja pomirjujoče zatočišče, v katerem se lahko uporabniki odmaknejo od intenzivnih algoritmov in uživajo na bolj umirjeni, bolj odmaknjeni strani interneta. Projekt odraža teorijo interneta kot temnega gozda (Dark Forest) Yanceyja Stricklerja, ki temelji na ideji, da je splet postal temni gozd, kjer se uporabniki, ki se zavedajo nadzora, nadlegovanja in algoritemske prenasičenosti z informacijami, umaknejo v zaprte, zasebne spletne skupnosti.

V majhnih sobah znotraj votline visokega drevesa utripajo ironični memi, smešni GIF-i in anonimni zapiski o izgorelosti in upokojitvi. Obiskovalci lahko preko poštnega nabiralnika pošljejo tudi svoja sporočila, se povežejo z drugimi uporabniki prek skupnih zapiskov, internih šal in spletnih referenc ali pa se preprosto zadržijo ob nenehno izmenjajočih se vsebinah pretekle in trenutne internetne kulture.

Digitalni vmesnik prepleta estetiko zgodnjih HTML strani in statičnih spletnih podob prvih internetnih skupnosti s kompleksnim virtualnim okoljem in 3D renderji organskih naravnih elementov. Za generacijo, vzgojeno v grindset zablode in ideje monetiziranih identitet, drevo služi kot utopični upokojenski dom za naše spletne osebnosti, ki jih ne zmoremo ohranjati ter hkrati ustvarja prostor, v katerem lahko obstajamo brez všečkov, ogledov in komentarjev, se povežemo z drugimi uporabniki ali pa si preprosto samo oddahnemo.

Beti Frim aka Pixel Bambi (2001) je končala dodiplomski študij vizualnih komunikacij, magistrski študij pa nadaljuje na smeri Video in novi mediji na Akademiji za likovno umetnost in oblikovanje v Ljubljani. V svojem delu se z združevanjem digitalnih in analognih medijev v audio-vizualnih pripovedih osredotoča na temo sobivanja. Z raziskovanjem post-internetne estetike v kombinaciji z naravno, išče povezave med različnimi perspektivami v vizualno prenasičenem svetu. Na likovnem področju je razstavljala v okviru platforme Kres v osmo/zi, s kolektivom Xenoscapers sodelovala na BIO28 ter z delom From Moss-centric era na 35. grafičnem bienalu v Ljubljani. Deluje tudi na glasbenem področju, kjer je z audio-vizualnimi projekti sodelovala na festivalih kot so Sonica, Grounded, Niansa, Rdeče zore ter s kolektivoma Ustanova in Nimaš izbire.