CAS Online Gallery: A Rough Guide

CAS Online Gallery: A Rough Guide

With two weeks to go until the deadline for the 2026 Members Show, we thought we’d give you a rough guide to the CAS Online Gallery Voxels Space. 3D galleries have been around a long time with the central idea that digital art should feel as if it is located somewhere. In 2003 Second Life proved that an exhibition could be a “place”, with openings, conversations, performances and community. Hundreds of in-world galleries hosted photography, painting, sculpture and experimental digital work but users needed special software and a fast computer. These days we can view online galleries effortlessly on a laptop in a browser. Instant access is great, but being thrown into a 3D world can be confusing. You keep bumping into things.

When you first arrive at the address you’ll see something like this. You are the white avatar in the middle of the screen. Use the Escape key to switch between modes. Then use the keyboard and the mouse to navigate. Use the mouse to look around and use the cursor keys to move forward, left and right. It takes a bit of getting used to but once you get coordinated you can confidently walk around not just the Gallery but the neighbourhood too. The CAS Online Gallery has three floors and although the layout is semi-fixed the content in the gallery changes show by show. To go up stairs just walk onto them and up you go. You may catch images from previous CASCOM members shows or the V&A Digital Design weekend. When we last visited there was a full Tudor house on the roof of the gallery for some reason. The Gallery has been put together voxel by voxel by CASCOM member James Alec Hardy who is a wizard in all things Metaversal / 3D design and is constantly probing at the boundaries of the digital and the physical. The Gallery measures 22m by 12m with a build height restriction of 8m, which is comparable to a real art gallery.

The CAS Online Gallery lives on a particular parcel of space called Venice, which was procedurally generated by the original programmers of the Voxels software which runs using a combination of JavaScript and SQL. Being Venice there is a lot of water around. You are going to fall in, which is not fun and looks like this.

You can wander around the bottom of the canals if you like and you’ll probably meet other drowned artists, but there is an escape route - press the ‘f’ button continuously this will fly you upwards until eventually you can get on dry land again. By the way flying around is a fun way to view the Venice area as a whole. There are other galleries and buildings and even a concert hall near by, a grand piano sits unloved and of course there are Gondoliers. What we weren’t expecting was a large jet airplane flying back and forth across the sky. There are surprises around every corner.

Why not log on with someone else and see what you can get up to? There is a built in Chat function and plenty of Emojis and fixed action loops like dancing for you to enjoy. These are all at the bottom of the screen in a small control panel.

Although you are seeing the art by other people small and in a browser (or VR headset if you’re lucky enough to own one), this is made up for by the way you can engage and play with the art and the space and in particular with other people. Hopefully we will have a great night at the launch on the 9th of December both in person at BCS Moorgate and also online via zoom. There will be walkthroughs demos and talks.

The CAS Online Gallery will host more events in the future. We see it as an additional useful meeting place. And it’s fun.

Good luck with your submission. You have two weeks to go. Deadline 22nd November. Remember all digital formats are acceptable.

Submit your work to the CAS Members Exhibition 2026, or visit the CAS Online Gallery.

Enter the 2026 CAS Members Exhibition

Author: Tim Pickup