wen bear

“wen bear” is an analog video piece rooted in nostalgia but aimed at the heart of now. Sampling the iconic power-up transformation from Altered Beast (1988), this work is not just a tribute to classic video games—it's a confrontation. Through distorted visuals and a custom analog glitch treatment, “wen bear” becomes a mirror. In games, we level up in broken worlds, thrive in chaos, and respawn after death. What does that say about us? Do we truly long for a better world, or are we addicted to watching it all fall apart? The piece weaves existential threads through its visuals and sound—a distorted memory of a low bit era that now feels eerily prophetic. The glitch is not just an effect; it’s a question mark. A fracture. A clue. What if life itself is a simulation? A loop? A series of inserted coins and second chances? And then there’s the bear. In crypto, the phrase “wen bear?” signals fear, frustration, and shifting sentiment. It’s hope wrapped in sarcasm, just as games wrap violence in play. In “wen bear”, the bear is all of it—power, transformation, resistance, and surrender. A spirit of the market and of the myth. Video games are about texture, error and meaning. “wen bear” channels that ethos fully—raising the stakes, asking the questions, pressing start again after inserting another coin.

The original in-game transfomation movie was looped, a custom music piece by my fren CDLM added. The video was then passed through analog glitch gear and a nifty video mixer. Displayed on an old CRT tv the image was then re-recorded with a digital camera to preserve the flickering CRT lines. The many different glitches were digitally masked together in Adobe Premiere. A Hama Easy Script was used to generate the title.

House Of Danu is a label of analog glitch art by CryptoJ: https://objkt.com/collections/KT1FSuVjsmgDdM4vAeCua6qU4LwY633rHDQ2