2018 - Value in the Virtual

Value in the Virtual

Space Popular solo exhibition at ArkDes in Stockholm Sweden between 19 September - 18 November 2018. In "Value in the Virtual" Space Popular unfold an immersive installation exploring the role of architecture, and architects, in the design of virtual worlds.

Value in the Virtual presents a vision of the latent potential of spatial design in and for virtual environments. Shaped by the practice and conceptual lens of Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, creative directors of the London-based architecture studio Space Popular, this installation articulates a direction for architecture which interfaces with cognitive science, colour theory, and the spectacular possibilities laid before us at the dawn of an imminent, immersive virtual reality.

Taking the form of two simultaneously active environments, one physical and one virtual, visitors experience full-scale fragments of Stockholm dissolve, mutate, distort and replicate and envision a constellation of possible futures in which material values are radically recast.

With Value in the Virtual, Boxen at Arkdes becomes a shared space and testing ground for discussion about the role of architecture, and of the architect, in the virtual sphere. During and beyond the exhibition a virtual layer of Boxen will be able to be visited in Sansar – a social virtual reality platform accessible by anyone, anywhere, anytime.

Value in the Virtual

In 1935, the American science fiction writer Stanley Grauman Weinbaum published Pygmalion’s Spectacles, one of his final novellas and the first fictional model for the systems and experiences that we now describe as Virtual Reality (VR). The story opens in Manhattan, with a chance encounter between Dan Burke, an employee of the Board of Trade in Chicago, and Professor Albert Ludwig, a “gnome-like” man bristling with intrigue. Taking shelter from the rain, they discuss philosophy and human perception, in which the professor argues that the sensations we feel are in fact mental phenomena – they exist not in the world, but in our minds. “But how, then,” he ponders, “do we know that objects themselves do not exist only in our minds?” Waving at the “light-flecked buildings” across Central Park, he asserts to Burke: “You do not see that wall of masonry; you perceive only a sensation, a feeling of sight. The rest,” he surmises, “you interpret.”

Time and again, science fiction has prophesised the very technologies that are now accelerating toward broad availability and widespread use. From E. M. Forster’s The Machine Stops (1909) to William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984), visions of a world in which ’virtual’ environments and interactions are the norm bleed from the pages of fiction and raise some of the more urgent ethical questions of our time. In the sphere of architecture and design, such questions are particularly acute. What form should an architectural value system take, for instance, when it expands from the physical world into virtual multiverses? If the designers of these environments are not bound by a requirement to shelter, nor required to adhere to the various physical limitations imposed by building in the ‘real’ world, what could be expected from them? Ultimately, and perhaps most importantly, what is the role of the architect and designer in this transition?

With these questions in mind, Value in the Virtual presents a vision of the latent potential of spatial design in and for virtual environments. Presented through the practice and conceptual lens of Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, creative directors of the London-based architecture studio Space Popular, this installation articulates a direction for architecture which interfaces with cognitive science, colour theory, and the spectacular possibilities laid before us at the dawn of an imminent, immersive virtual reality.

The six environments in Boxen make reference to spaces and places that can be found in Stockholm. The totems, which represent gateways to a virtual layer, explore shifting value systems in a future virtual ‘built’ environment. From the Golden Hall of Stockholm City Hall, which hosts civic functions from civil marriages to the annual Nobel Prize banquet, to Östermalmstorg subway station and the public art of Siri Derkert, these environments span public, private and in-between spaces that together comprise the fabric of the city. What you see in Boxen can be experienced by anyone, at anytime and in anyplace, through Sansar – one of the world’s largest social VR platforms. The six environments coexist simultaneously as a virtual layer, which may be experienced through any VR hardware both in and outside of Boxen.

If virtual reality is no longer science fiction then it is our collective duty, both as potential users and as citizens of livable domains yet to be designed, to take responsibility for a technology that will in all likelihood dominate our everyday experiences and interpersonal interactions in the imminent future. For this reason, Value in the Virtual is intended as a shared space and testing ground for discussion about the role of the architect, and of architecture, in the burgeoning virtual sphere.

Published 18th September 2018 as part of the exhibition catalog for the exhibition Value in the Virtual at ArkDes, Sweden’s national centre for architecture and design.

Lara Lesmes & Fredrik Hellberg 2018

1. Virtual content will radically alter the value of architecture

The limitations that define our physical environment—such as gravity, light, or material resources—are of no concern in virtual worlds. As such, fundamental assumptions of what, how, why and for whom architects design will be recast.

2. Values will be both gained and lost in the transition to the virtual

Just as the elevator allowed and then encouraged us to dwell higher above the ground, new spatial scenarios will lead to different patterns of life. Spatial qualities yet to be imagined will change the ways in which we value our environment.

3. Virtual worlds will intensify our interest and appreciation of physical environments

Virtual worlds are an invention of the physical – they rely on our haptic knowledge of the world around us. In a similar way to how fiction shapes our lives, simulated reality will intensify our interest in and care toward the physical world.

4. Architecture will be appreciated by the spatial experience it provides

Virtual environments will have the capacity to shape, lift, suppress, and influence us. Architecture in the virtual will be able to change at the speed of thought and, being freed from its primary role as shelter, will lead with experience as purpose.

5. Spatial experiences will become increasingly specific and tailored to its dwellers

Redecorating your virtual home will be as simple as changing clothes. Rapid spatial customisation will increase demand for content and objects in virtual marketplaces.

6. Planetary scale virtual worlds will coexist with their physical counterparts

The future Internet will carry a persistent map of the entire physical world. Virtual worlds will coexist and interact with this map, allowing any virtual object or user to be positioned between layers with millimetre precision.

7. Peripheral attention will broaden from objects and faces to facades and streets

Physical architecture is largely static and, as a result, peripheral to our perception of everyday lived experience. Virtual architecture has the potential to be as interactive as human beings are with one another.

8. Virtual craftsmanship will gain appreciation as virtual worlds become the norm

Digital craftsmanship will become mainstream; the intangible will carry the same value as tangible objects do today.

9. Social appreciation will manifest visually as embellishments to our attire and environments

In virtual worlds, an evolved form of ‘social media’ will be tethered to our avatars. Social interactions will become intensely spatial experiences.

10. Attire and architecture will blend into a continuous extension of the self

Architecture provides a format for everyday life but remains peripheral to our lived experience. As inhabitable virtual environments become the norm, the environments that we shape will shape us wholly in return.