The metaverse is here to stay

The ‘metaverse’– broadly defined as an always-online ‘second’ spatial virtual world – has received global attention in the last few months as the future of ‘everything’.

But the idea of a metaverse is not new. It was first coined by Neal Stephenson in the 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, which explores the dystopian potential of the encroaching web, and has been regularly revisited ever since.

Yet, in the last couple of years a new public narrative, telling us that the metaverse will ‘change everything’ has emerged. But what does that change look like for cultural institutions? How and why should they engage with the construction of the metaverse? And for whose benefit?

Acceleration of digital technologies

Since March 2020, repeated lockdowns and restrictions on physical experience resulting from Covid have meant cultural organisations have urgently been reflecting on existing paradigms of art institutional digital strategy, compelled as they have been to rely on digital spaces as the primary arena for delivering their mission and vision.

Yet competing for online audiences has proved an immense challenge. This predicament was by no means novel, but it was made starker by the absence of physical programming.

There has been an incredible acceleration in the uses of digital technologies in the arts, not just as tools that facilitate access or communication, but also as culture in and of itself. What we refer to as ‘advanced virtual environments’, that is virtual worlds and spaces often created using video game technologies, have been emerging as key sites for social and cultural experiences that structure and facilitate conversations, creative projects, collective endeavours and trade.

So, while lockdowns presented a somewhat extreme (and hence skewed) scenario of almost total reliance on digital platforms they have acted as a major catalyst for accelerating the development and public awareness of the metaverse.

Profound shift in understanding

This is not simply a matter of virtual reality or augmented reality glasses (the software and/or hardware of certain immersive experiences), but the global infrastructure project that is the future of the internet – now also referred to as Web 3.0, Spatial Web or Decentralised Web – and the coming together of numerous technological developments such as blockchain, 5G and video game technologies.

This has shifted understanding of what digital is. It is no longer possible – if it ever has been – to speak of physical and digital as separate realms. This significant shift may be one of the greatest challenges facing cultural and their post-pandemic digital strategies.

Dominant existing methods, mostly grounded in digitally amplifying what takes place in physical spaces, are no longer sufficient. What is required is a more profound shift in thinking, planning and investment in emerging technological spaces if they are to represent and satisfy their audiences.

How to support artists of the future

At Serpentine, we have long been fascinated by the cultural impact of advanced and emerging technologies on artists and institutions and how to be responsive to an ever-changing environment.

Last year we released Future Art Ecosystems: Art x Metaverse (FAE2), the result of our own experience and discussions with a diverse group of over 50 practitioners from the worlds of art, gaming, film, architecture, indie gaming and the wider cultural industries.

A key finding – perhaps no surprise – was that artists interested in advanced and emerging technologies, in particular those that will be key components of any future metaverse(s), are often best served by art-adjacent fields such as film, architecture, and gaming.

So our research explored what the cultural sector could learn from these fields in terms of supporting artistic experimentation and creating new forms of cultural infrastructure. We wanted to ensure that, for the future, structural changes have the needs of artists and creative practitioners at the core.

Gaming and film lead the way

The video games industry currently dominates the field, having spent decades developing, prototyping and operationalising the technological infrastructure. Importantly this includes the video game engine which is a key metaverse software used for the creation of hybrid digital-physical experiences ranging from niche independent titles to Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) worlds.

The indie game sector provides a myriad of relatively accessible tools for developers to create, distribute and talk about their games with audiences. At the same time, ‘game feel’ – the presence of attributes of game systems in non-game or ‘real-life’ situations – is all-pervasive, highlighting that ‘advanced virtual environments’ are not sealed-off worlds with their own rules. Rather, their logics infiltrate and enmesh with all aspects of social, cultural, and economic interaction, online or offline.

The film festival circuit has also paved the way for the creation of ‘immersive storytelling’ as a metaverse genre. The launch of the New Frontier programme at Sundance Film Festival in 2007 created a space for practitioners to develop, show and pitch works bringing the fields of technology, film, gaming and storytelling closer together.

The expansion of this practice into other film festivals including Sheffield DocFest, CPH:DOX and the BFI London Film Festival, has created a decentralised support network for experimentation in the field, access to networks and knowledge, and sources of funding and distribution for artists and creative producers with a particular focus on early stage R&D.

An ambitious proposal

In terms of audiences, the metaverse is already transforming interaction; building dedicated communities and creating experiences that can be framed by virtual worlds and extend beyond them.

Advanced virtual environments are layered inhabitable spaces, and in the context of the arts, these can both enhance the relationship with existing audiences and help institutions engage with and discover new ones – people who may not usually consider visiting a theatre or an exhibition.

While FAE2 does not suggest that indie games or immersive storytelling be absorbed into the existing art-institutional ecosystem – as these models are largely commercial with very different models of accountability and measures of success – there is plenty we can learn by adapting digital strategies for a post-pandemic world.

FAE2 offers an ambitious proposal to assess how arts organisations can contribute to the emerging metaverse, and to develop stronger ties that support art and advanced technologies and respond to a broader societal agenda.

We recognise that this will require significant policy interventions and financial investment which can only be achieved if the cultural sector works collaboratively. It feels like now is exactly the time for the sector to come together to start these important conversations.

Kay Watson is Head of Arts Technologies at Serpentine