The continuing need for new media

In a world of cultural and digital abundance, how do we create value and meaning? Is it even possible to digitally experiment and explore while also making something of value anymore?

Last year in an essay called “Formulary for New Media” we theorized ways this could be done. By making work that:

• Breaks out of existing platform boxes

• Extends across formats and mediums

• Invites the audience to participate on their terms

• Doesn’t just chase the internet’s infinite scale

Metalabel is an operating system designed to give this capability to every creative person. To not just post and chase platform games, but to build work on their terms, in their voice, and that could be valued in whatever ways they see fit.

This week’s new releases showcase a set of exceptional artists and output that do exactly this.

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Releases we love

VÉRITÉ, The Archive

We invited the musician VÉRITÉ to share more about their epic new release, The Archive. Here’s a look behind the project from their perspective.

“The Archive was an experiment in giving my catalog away — for theft or for purchase by those who desired, scattering bits of digital data that exist as the architecture and building blocks of experiences we hope to have in our real lives. As an artist who is creating for digital and live consumption, letting these digital artifacts scatter freely in the 1’s and 0’s of the web felt true to form. There is a forever battle surrounding the value of music in digital form and I fear we’re in a race to the bottom. I’ve come to the conclusion that these digital artifacts in and of themselves don’t have much intrinsic value. They are ephemeral specks of data floating around our screens. At the same time, I understand that artistry at its core is life changing and limitlessly valuable.

“This reality requires a reframing of how we view art in commerce. Instead of hyping and grifting and inflating the value of digital artifacts that have become so diluted in an over-saturated sea of ‘content,’ I’d like to drop the bullshit. All of my digital music is available to you. Take it, steal it. It’s yours. I literally made it for you and feel extremely excited that you’d want to spend your time with it.

“If you are someone who has the means and desire to support, to financially contribute… you can buy it. You can also buy merch. Or come to a show that will inevitably happen once I finish this fucking album. You can pay what you want. You can pay more than you want. You can become a patron of the project rather than a consumer of it. And because of that patronage, I will be better equipped to build you a beautiful or devastating world to step into, depending on my mood.

“All of these revelations have come from time spent immersed in these files, deconstructing my relationship with myself and my work and how I want it to be experienced and valued. The physical manifestations of these files, the Archive USBs are purposely deconstructed to be exposed and fragile and likely to break over time if thrown haphazardly in the bottom of your bag. An object in direct opposition to its digital mirror.

Enjoy with care.

— KB"

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flower window by Alex Mcleod

Pink blossoms drift across the screen — endless, weightless, slightly unreal. In Flower Window, Toronto-based artist Alex McLeod builds a looping digital landscape where petals blur in and out of focus. They shimmer with a plastic sheen, yet feel familiar. The tension between synthetic surface and emotional memory holds. He lets it play out in real time, quiet and steady.

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Spillover by Permeated Transmissions

What if a mountain could vanish just for your phone to charge? In northern Portugal, lithium mining threatens to flatten entire landscapes in the name of ecological transition. Spillover confronts the cost. Through sound, image, and data, the project traces how borders — geographic, cultural, imagined — shape our relationship to land, power, and responsibility. Delivered on a custom USB embedded in stone, it includes an audio-visual piece, audio-only version, texts, and performance documentation. It asks viewers to sit with the contradictions: the sleek promise of green tech against the raw destruction it leaves behind.

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New World order by CoMatter

Our friends at co-matter (who we collaborated with to make Metalabel 006: After the Creator Economy) are back with New World Order, a research memo that maps the real mechanics of influence — where economic systems, tech platforms, and political narratives converge to shape our realities.

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Silk Wind Chimes by Danielle Gadus

Danielle Gadus’s Silk Wind Chimes gathers hand-dyed silk banners that move with the air, catch shifting light, and reshape the feel of a space. These tactile, precise forms hold attention without insistence, softening the room and slowing perception. A quietly disarming invitation into a more sensual, present way of being.

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Talking Metalabel and the Dark Forest on Doomscroll

It’s not quite season 02 of the New Creative Era podcast, but this week there is a reunion between Josh Citarella and Yancey on Josh’s breakout show Doomscroll. Click through to hear us discuss the Dark Forest and the new internet we find ourselves in:

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