Virtual Spaces
Today was a lot about virtual spaces, virtual fashion, and the generation gap. The idea was postmodern architecture, but we live amongst postmodern architecture every day, so the new age of digital architecture was focused on more, thankfully. It would be have been good to also talk about the effects of postmodern architecture and studies around that, potentially citing back to Week 6, but digital fashion and Second Life were fun too as subjects. I feel this is more a side effect of me enjoying this class too much and wanting to have more classes.
The ideas of virtual fashion are really interesting. I'm aware of how some virtual webcomics/series are shaping fashion in small instances, for example Giachakuta creating a new street-wear movement in Japan — but having an entirely independent style and culture for being online is also quite interesting. In places like VRChat, the fashion isn't just what you wear but also the body of your character itself. Given that we will likely eventually have this ability in real life, I wonder if the internet space is an acceleration of our fashion culture, or if by the time we get there IRL, we will have taken a different path.
With these new virtual spaces, I think back to Baudrillard. David Shea hasn't mentioned him yet, but mentions the ideas of 'simulacra' fairly often. Generation Alpha is now getting online and being shaped by virtual spaces, mostly within Roblox. A phenomenon in one of the games popular with Gen Alpha — 'dress to impress' — shows that the images of fashion movements and time periods no longer matter; they've been abstracted again. This is talked about a lot more in a documentary I found recently called Welcome to Jankspace. I highly recommend it — almost like 'Shock of the New' for the uber-modern age, and it follows a lot of ideas that I have as well, explaining them better and more in-depth.
In class, we had an expert on the Minecraft group 'Build the World' — an experiment about trying to replicate the world in Minecraft. Other programs have already replicated the Earth at 1:1, so what is the point? I think it goes back to the ideas about 'aura' in art talked about in Weeks 4 and 5. By making the world a physical process of creation instead of using Google Maps scans, it becomes more human — slightly inaccurate at times, with unique creative decisions for each colour and block. These virtual labour ideas are interesting as a form of group art. Another example: in VRChat, there's a server where members work together in a workflow to build a tower of Babel, mining stones, processing them and physically walking to the top to build it up higher. It has entertainment value, social value from community, and acts as a new form of expression.
I had a few ideas for this journal this week. One: a goose chase with physical 'dead drops' and puzzles to solve, each week associated with a different location or medium relevant to the content covered. Another: a text on a top-down web where the user navigates and can rearrange content in different ways, emphasising the interconnected nature of this class. I went with the second — you're reading it right now.
Second life seems really interesting, maybe over the break I'll make something for it. My mother used to do second life with Stelarc, here's an image of her avatar with him in-game:
