Expanding Space in Virtual Worlds

New technology isn’t always revolutionary. It repeats patterns and gaps that exist in every system, replicating the flaws of its predecessors. Inherent within the operating systems of technology are still income disparities, social inequalities, biases, marginalized populations and exploited laborers, hidden behind the dazzling face of everything new; perhaps even further amplified in uncharted territories. Despite this, I propose to embrace and adapt to the rapidly shifting reality, before these technologies dominate our increasingly nearer future. Virtual space offers us an escape from our crammed and overpopulated urban cities, pent up in high-rise towers and studio walls, or from our vast fields and abandoned lots. More space equals money in crammed capitalist cities, as does to build on barren land. The virtual and non-physical space grants us a degree of freedom to create at any scale and allows us to occupy limitless space. It also offers us a realm of possibilities such as perspective-based narrative storytelling. We can take the perspective of a book, a person, or an object, small or large. The objective here is not to build empathy, but to open up new narrative experiences. The immersive video footage is grounded in reality, but the warped and fractured manipulation of these images and its superimposed layers converge the nonfiction into imagined territory. I present examples of creative and strategic adaptation that stem from the classroom to become models for long-term video-making practices.