UBERMORGEN
CLICKISTAN (LEVEL 3)

The video loop CLICKISTAN (LEVEL 3) is an Ethereum token by the artist duo UBERMORGEN, created in 2023 as part of the 72-hour Open NFT edition of the EXPANDED.ART PIONEER GRAILS series. Each Open Edition is available for 72 hours, and the final edition is determined by the number of sales within this time period. CLICKISTAN (LEVEL 3) is a video loop from the third level of the browser-based game CLICKISTAN, which the duo developed in 2010. The duo views LEVEL 3 as the "capital" of the small digital world of the web-based game. In the game, points must be collected by clicking, but the rules remain inscrutable to players. The aimless clicking in the game mirrors the aimless clicking and formlessness of the web.

Against a blue background reminiscent of the iconic blue of the first Windows desktop backgrounds from the 1990s, various animated animal figures move — a rabbit, an elephant, a dog, as well as cats and dolphins. The scene is inspired by the early years of the internet, when there were mainly pixelated GIFs instead of social media or memes. CLICKISTAN (LEVEL 3) brings together animals that play special roles on the internet, such as the cat as the secret ruler of the web. The animals appear in different sizes and animation styles, moving horizontally across the screen at varying heights. Their outlines are sometimes pixelated, and their proportions seem distorted in relation to each other. The animation elements are deliberately kept in low resolution and sometimes roughly cut out — a reference to the aesthetics of Net Art. The scene is accompanied by a soundtrack reminiscent of the music from early internet games.

The visual endless loop of the video evokes associations with an empty homepage from which text or graphic content has been removed — only the relentless repetition of moving images remains. To preserve this original pixelated aesthetic, the video was recorded with Internet Explorer 5, an old browser from 1999.

Text: Nina Liechti