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Keeping up with the metaverse: ideas and practices emerged in the past pandemic year.
WE'RE THE METAVERSE

Johannes Henschel (Curatorial research, synthesis) joins forces with Martina Menegon (Artist, Lecturer), Julia Schmelzer (Curator, Pylon), Bika Rebek (Architect, Some Place Studio) in a panel discussion aimed to address those questions.

 

We will question the recent boost to digital that still leaves many behind and shed some lights on the importance of delivering digital exhibitions with a clear vision and curatorial framework. We would like to nurture and stimulate the conversation inside the Mozilla Hubs metaverse built for RECOLLECTING FUTURES an online exhibition presented by synthesis and Pylon investigating how we store, evaluate and share information and memories in the vastness of information circulating in all different kinds of media nowadays. 

 

Short Thesis

After a seemingly infinite period of lockdown caused by the pandemic, the art world has found itself facing the question of what kind of role virtual spaces (metaverses) would play in the future of art. The limits of XR as an artistic medium are far from being exhausted. Finding new ways to bring audiences together is indeed possible!

Description

We walk through the evolution of digital art and the metaverses in the past year, and investigate the curatorial practices that have emerged as a result. We will question the recent boost to digital that still leaves many behind and shed some lights on the importance of delivering digital exhibitions with a clear vision and curatorial framework. Despite the troubling times, finding new ways to bring audiences together is indeed possible and the blossoming and recent wide-spread popularization of web/social VR platforms (Mozilla Hubs) marks an important milestone in the way digital art is collectively experienced and accessed. As the possibilities of real, physical exhibitions have been drastically constrained, the unprecedented shift towards the digital confirms how metaverses are here to stay and would become more relevant in the future.