Updated: Mar 26, 2024
Maro Dori Sky Palace is one of the architectural wonders of the Spatial Metaverse. This celestial gallery showcases the imaginary, noble bird Maro Dori, a creation of a special, young Japanese artist Michiko, paired with the captivating, seasonal Kyoto photos of Fumio Kojima. The result is a blend of tradition and modernity.
This beautiful, virtual environment features floating bridges that allow users to walk through a sequence of gallery spaces and connect with others along the way.
Imagine my excitement when I was invited to have a solo exhibition in one of the galleries.
Many of you know that I love architecture and spent many years photographing the architecture of Dubai, so to be invited to exhibit in this architecturally unique Japanese virtual space was very special.
Because of the many floating bridges in the space and because I believe that architecture is in itself a bridge, as it has the ability to move people emotionally, I was inspired to call this exhibition, “Bridging Worlds”.
My artworks in this exhibition feature people from various parts of the world, and invite us to walk in the shoes of those who have worldviews different to our own. We are invited to bridge our differences and instead realize our similarities and our interconnectedness..
The figures in the artworks invite us to follow them and move along a bridge from the outer world to the inner world of contemplation. As much as there is a sense of stillness in movement in the artworks, there is also a sense of movement into stillness.
The exhibition is also a celebration of the many bridges that I have already crossed on my explorations in the metaverse.
My collaboration with the Japanese community in Spatial has enabled us to bridge language barriers by researching and discovering modern speech to text technology.
As a result of implementing this technology which facilitates communication, people who are hard of hearing are now able to feel fully included in the metaverse. Different speaking communities in the metaverse are also communicating more easily with each other, uniting us all.
Time zones are no longer a barrier as the metaverse has encouraged us to bridge this challenge.
Many of our artworks are both physical and digital, the metaverse being the bridge to the phygital.
Someone expressed to me recently that the metaverse is a bridge which enables them to be both social in the virtual realm and yet solitary in the physical realm at the same time.
As we continue to connect in the metaverse we are building bridges. Dr Judi Harris put it so beautifully:
“When I see cyberspace, I see bridges. Perhaps I should say I see people, building bridges in cyberspace. Not bridges of steel, not even electronic bridges, but bridges of ideas that span the miles of physical space, cross the generations and connect people who would otherwise be unlikely ever to meet.”
You, dear reader, are invited to join me in the Maro Dori Sky Palace and to cross bridges you had not before thought were possible.
Bridging Worlds: 1 April 2024 - 31 May 2024
A Japanese version of this blog post has been published here.
There will be a cherry blossom viewing and exhibition celebration on 1 April 2024 at 10PM JST/9AM EST/3PM CET in Ambient Canvas. Experience a Japanese style hangout with Koto music, before joining me on a journey to "Bridging Worlds".
Updated: Jan 1, 2023
Cyberspace as we know it is evolving. The next step in its evolution, which we are already beginning to get a taste of, is an immersive cyberspace, more commonly referred to as the Metaverse.
When we first had access to internet there were only static pages that focused on information. This was called Web 1. Web 2, centred on user-created content uploaded to services such as blogs, forums and social media, is all about interaction. Web 3 will be about immersion.
Whereas we browsed the internet before, we will soon be immersed in it and be, in a sense, able to live in it as digital avatars in a 3D space. Headsets will enable full immersion.
Immersion ©Linda Hollier
Examples of immersive tasks will include gathering with friends remotely, working with work colleagues collaboratively, and co-experiencing virtual events such as concerts. Many functions of life will move into virtual environments. Shopping and virtual travel will be available with an accompanying economy.
We started to experience some of these possibilities with Zoom during the pandemic, but what was missing in this 2D experience on screens was the networking experience that accompanies in-person events. This will be able to be replicated in a 3D immersive world.
I have recently joined Spatial, a metaverse with visually stunning, immersive 3D spaces. It has enabled me to customize my own virtual gallery and event space, and host live events, all of which at this point in time can be experienced via smartphone, laptop or a Meta Quest headset.
To navigate the metaverse, we are already hearing about and experiencing the “portal”. One moves between spaces and so one requires a way to do so.
Stepping through.©Linda Hollier
Currently, by clicking on a portal one exits a space and enters another instantaneously. One is reminded of teleportation where one is transported across space and distance instantly. In the metaverse, a portal is opened, one’s avatar passes through, and there is fluid spatial switching.
Let us consider the choice of using the word “portal”.
In architecture the portal, whether it be a gateway or a doorway, is a space which is framed to call attention to spatial transition, In the 14th century, it referred to “the entire architectural treatment of the entrance and its surroundings of a cathedral or other grand building”. The structural elements alluded to something of high significance behind them.
Portal, from the Latin “porta” meaning “gate” and the Latin “portare” meaning “to carry” is also often used to mean a gateway to a realm in another dimension, another plane of existence.
The portal symbolizes spatial transition and has the characteristics of both a special place and a path.
Threshold ©Linda Hollier
Most importantly, a portal implies a threshold - a significant instance or point which invokes or encourages a shift of perception before one goes forward.
Those of you who know me are aware of my interest in the architecture of cyberspace.
How will portals in the metaverse be depicted? We are already seeing circular forms. Will they eventually be so designed that they will be able to teleport our digital avatars not only from one space in a metaverse to another, but also from one metaverse to another when there are what is being referred to as multiverses? No doubt the portal will evolve until there is one possible omniverse.
My series titled “Navigating the Metaverse” is my current contribution to these new realms.
Individual pieces can be purchased on OpenSea as NFTs.
Updated: Jul 3, 2021
I am very happy to share my iPhone photograph of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.
It was awarded an honorable mention in the IPPA Awards 2018, category of the IPhone Photography Awards 2018.