In October 2020, ‘Arquia/Próxima’, an annual architectural event for Portuguese and Spanish architects, was held in a virtual space instead of a real space for the first time due to the present global pandemic. With so many large-scale offline events transferred online since last year, the main difference in this event is its desired remedy to the norm in the sense of communicating liveliness, solidarity, and mutual interaction.
The programme itself consisted of lectures, exhibitions, films, and awards ceremonies similar to the previous year. However, the event was not only broadcasted online through Zoom and YouTube; a new 3D virtual space was built for this two-day event. When you access the website (espaciofq.com) and enter the event venue with a thin-paper-like avatar, a city block resembling the pixel world of the games Roblox and Minecraft unfolds. There, you can go to the galleries with other avatars, enjoy exhibits, and watch the lecture on the big screen placed in the plaza. In other words, those who participate in this event look at the 3D space through the screen of digital devices such as real PCs or mobile devices, and consume content through a virtual 2D screen placed in that space. In terms of a novel, it is a framed composition.
Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, the curator of this event, said that we are now accustomed to video conferencing and conversing over laptops and smartphones, and now it is time ‘to rethink how we can begin a cultural transition towards the digital as well as creating new forms of interaction with other people’. Commucation in the virtual space easily becomes boring and getting low concentration. To solve this problem, Punto de Inflexión put an additional layer of virtual space to present the feeling of seeing ‘together’ the 2D screens of exhibits, videos, and websites.
Space Popular (co-principals, Lara Lesmes & Fredrik Hellberg) designed space as a 3×3 grid system based on the urban structure of Barcelona and made an avatar capable of walking around the plaza, gallery, and cinema hall. The apprearence of the avatars is only on two rectanglar planes so they don’t look like real people, but somehow it helps to have a sense of togetherness that be in same space and at same time.
There was similar case in Korea last year: ‘ORGD 2020: Optimal Performance Zone’ (covered in SPACE No. 641). A total of 11 graphic design teams displayed their works such as books, posters, websites in the digital space. The way to exhibit 2D content in 3D virtual spaces becomes a new communication method of the future. (written by Choi Eunhwa)
