Impossible Spaces and Other Embodiments: Co-constructing Virtual Realities

Abstract

There is an urgent need to build affectively rich virtual environments for creative collaboration between international and culturally diverse communities of researchers using arts-based methods. The COVID-19 pandemic shone a bright light on an already existing gap in platforms for individual artists, researchers, and global arts research communities wanting to exchange and build new knowledge toward social justice through effective virtual spaces beyond video conferencing. This chapter will reflect on one such experiment: an iterative, experimental virtual reality space for knowledge exchange and collaboration between global artists, designers, and transdisciplinary researchers of the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (CAD+SR). The space was co-designed with M Eifler and Evelyn Eastmond (Microsoft), as well as a focus group of CAD+SR Research Fellows. In July 2020, the authors led this process of creating a remote-spatial collaboration space in Mozilla Hubs for the group’s virtual research residency. This chapter shares their reflections and frames the first-person responses of the collaborating artists and researchers who co-created and engaged the space. Collaborators produced multiple forms of virtual reality exhibitions and exchanges, and the space activated a significant sense of affective connection, despite considerable differences in technology literacy, hardware, and internet or cellular data access.