I'm Tired Of Being Hypersurveilled
A concept album meets immersive experience at the intersection of music, gaming & media art. We play as Heno. trapped in a series of surveillance simulations looking for a way out - if there is one.
Demo
About
The problem it solves Although integral to our daily lives, music is often experienced passively; whether at the gym, grocery store, or social gatherings. This project aims to transform album listening into an experiential activity, blending traditional music spaces with onchain interactions. Over the past year, Heno. has showcased "I'm Tired Of Being Hypersurveilled" across several mediums such as short films, visual art by Web3 artists, music, a pixel video game, & a comprehensive VR experience. Creations from this project have been featured at events like Gateway Miami at Art Basel (NFT Now), Net Gala w/ BoysClubWorld (NY), & SXSW as an official 2024 Film/TV selection; secured a top-three spot in the XR competition for pioneering music, tech, & digital storytelling onchain. For this buildathon, we've created a site to host all of these aspects in a unique surveillance aesthetic. Our project leverages emerging technologies to tell stories that inspire conversations & revolutionize how music albums can be experienced in traditional & virtual spaces. Additionally, we aim to spark discussions around surveillance, a polarizing issue particularly onchain, by creating a compelling narrative for people to engage with. We play as Heno. trying to escape a series of simulations as S.Y.S.T.E.M. forces him to accept surveillance. To facilitate this, we've implemented tools like Crossmint for transactions with debit/credit cards, Privy for email sign-ins, Stacks to reward collectors & community members, & two leaderboards—one for our pixel arcade game & one for Stacks —further incentivizing engagement & participation across social apps like Farcaster & Orb (Lens). Lastly, we've built our own chatroom where folks can sign in with their (Coinbase or other) wallet & send messages to other members. Participants can also engage in a 5-day gamified minting experience on our site in July/August & will be placed on the allowlists for Heno.'s next visual + 20 min short film (on BASE Network via Zora).
How it's made
Challenges we ran into Multichain - Heno. has dropped content across multiple chains. From Base to Zora to Arbitrum to ETH mainnet and many more. Creating a single experience that is easily accessible was a challenge. To address this challenge we’ve made accessibility a top priority with features like credit card checkout powered by Crossmint as well as email sign-in with Privy. Onchain Chat - Building an onchain-native group chat has been challenging. We originally planned to use XMTP but found the docs said group chats are still in an alpha phase. We have now moved our onchain chat to use Push Protocol. The biggest challenge with Push is their lack of customization. I want to use Coinbase Smart Wallet. However, their UI components are hard-coded to include their own wallet connect modal.