‘A weird meta experience’: artist has @metaverse handle restored after Meta disables it

Thea-Mai Baumann reflects on making art in the web 3.0 world and digital disappearing acts

Thea-Mai Baumann's Instagram profile is an eclectic mix of pink-lipped selfies, David Bowie memes, colorful recordings of her hologram artwork, shots of skyscrapers in Shanghai and portraits of friends tinted in Valencia, Amaro and Toaster, all filters from Instagram's early days.

Baumann's account, which operates under the handle @metaverse, features 10 years of her life and work. All that became inaccessible to her when she suddenly found herself disabled from her account on 2 November, days after Facebook, which owns Instagram, changed its umbrella corporate name to Meta.