What is the metaverse?
A metaverse or metauniverse is a concept presented not so long ago. It consists in combining multiple virtual spaces, creating a completely immersive experience. A metauniverse shall allow interacting in 3D spaces with different users at the same time. It would be a virtual space that would connect users in every aspect of their lives as if we were using the same browser but with different websites. Even though it’s not a reality yet, there are many platforms that do contain metaverse-like elements. For example, right now, the clearest example we have is the virtual reality glasses used to play video games. It is one of the most immersive experiences we have available right now. Technology continues to develop, and soon enough, a metaverse will be an undeniable reality.
How to combine the metaverse and the artist?
As the study named “The metaverse and the artist” by David Serra Navarro said, the combination of the metaverse and the artist is a complex interaction of symbolic elements. Cyberart, because of its interaction, demands the presence of the body in action. Its interactions, generate an environment that it’s alive. This is a form of art that unites its relations with the space and the artist. It reinforces the idea of Duchamp, who believed in getting art closer to life. In these interactions, it’s not the object who takes the center space as if it would have happened in real life. What interests us in a metaverse and the cyberart it’s the unexpected relationship between elements where we can witness the regenerations that happen between the body and technologies which could not have occurred or existed if not for the presence and actions of the body with the technologies that it is interacting.
The participation, the connection, and the dialogue between the bodies are the fundament of the artistic action and the negotiation between our senses. In the action, we find a symbolic interaction, a different experience. It is beautifully described by Rosanne Stone as: “penetrating the screen involves a state change from the physical, biological space of the embodied viewer to the symbolic metaphorical consensual hallucination of cyberspace; a space that is a locus of intense desire for refigured embodiment”.
The metaverse gives us a different context to expand our body while at the same time we are saving distances. The performance takes us to an interactive aesthetic which also relates to the idea of life by Duchamp, who believed the interaction is not material but abstract.
