A floating Olympic Park. Hovering skyscrapers. A Dalston that exists in three time zones at the same time. Artist Lawrence Lek has created three very unusual future Londons indeed, in his virtual art exhibition, Bonus Levels.
The show, which comes to the Museum of London in October, views Lek's bizarre alternative realities, through three different video games.
In Delirious New Wick, iconic buildings from the Olympic Park hover on clumps of earth, above a sci-fi looking site below. The regeneration is regenerated.
Sky Line (Tube Strike Edition) allows you to travel on a floating railway line, which snakes between idealised galleries, hovering skyscrapers, mountain tops and other fragments of a make believe London in the sky (we're seeing a theme emerge here).
In the wonderfully titled Europa, Mon Amour (2016 Brexit Edition), you can explore Dalston landmarks, such as the Rio Cinema (above), as they appear in a world based on the physical maps of the area, bringing together three histories into a single zone: primorial forests, deluxe architecture, and artist-run colonies.
Says Lek:
Bonus Levels invites people to explore, first-person, an environment that appears surreal and yet familiar, subverting and questioning real-life locations. It is based on the places I know, that we all know, and seeks to imagine a virtual future London.
The display is part of City Now City Future, the museum's year-long programme exploring urban life in London and around the world.
Bonus Levels is at Museum of London from 7 October-17 January 2018. Entry is free
