AVANTGARDEN: BIOMES expands the virtual ecologies of the AVANTGARDEN into inhabited playfields populated by companions.

The project introduces a series of toy-like beings distributed across virtual worlds, social VR platforms, and video works. Drawing from the historical role of dolls as comforting, symbolic, and relational objects, BIOMES explores toys, dolls, and avatars as contemporary companions — emotional interfaces embedded within virtual habitats for presence, care, and cohabitation.

These beings function as affective agents situated inside the architectures of the AVANTGARDEN: clubs, gardens, offices, and playgrounds. Rather than isolated characters, they exist as relational objects within environments, shaping how users inhabit, navigate, and emotionally engage with virtual worlds. BIOMES treats avatars as prosthetic selves and digital creatures as companions facilitating interaction, projection, and shared presence.

BIOMES marks a new phase of the AVANTGARDEN, shifting from the construction of virtual ecologies toward the emergence of their inhabitants. Returning to themes present in earlier works such as Supermono, the project revisits dolls as some of the earliest human interfaces — devices of empathy, care, and projection. Historically, dolls have operated as stand-ins for bodies, identities, and mythologies, functioning as tools for rehearsing relationships with the world.

Similarly, avatars extend these functions into networked environments. They become distributed, persistent, and responsive, transforming companionship into an infrastructural element of virtual habitats.