The animated postcards document the artist’s trips into the metaverse; she notes what the weather is like, what people are wearing, the colours and forms of buildings and other such everyday tourist observations. However the postcards also record her feelings towards binary avatar formats, potential predatory behaviour and the psychological impacts of navigating virtual environments.
As interest and investment grows in a metaverse future grows, so does the urgency to question the reality and consequences of a programmed society in virtual landscapes. Who will own the dominant platforms? What regulations will they be subject to? How are decision makers held to account? Who has access and who is represented? Furthermore, Web3 technologies – upon which the metaverse idea is founded – rely on computationally heavy processes meaning the relatively young industry’s carbon footprint is already higher than that of whole nations.
The installation is an engaging, accessible and humorous window into the metaverse field – one that desperately needs a diversty of voices to address the pressing environmental and social issues that the move towards a metaverse future raises.