Challenge: Draw upon critical design, speculative design and design fiction to explore near-future uses of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to design for the Metaverse.
Response: Exploring the Possibility of an After-life in the Metaverse through a Digital Heaven
I was very excited about this brief as I have always been intrigued by the concept of the Metaverse. For my theme, I chose the “Health and Wellness” aspect because I imagined there were many approaches to tackle this theme in relation to the Metaverse. I particularly chose to explore the possibility of an After-life in the Metaverse through a “Digital Heaven” concept.
The big idea of the “Digital Heaven” is a virtual world where the subconsciousness of a deceased person will be used to simulate them as though they were alive. Through mixed reality, loved ones would be able to visit and communicate with the ones who have passed on.
I had initially decided to design a “Digital Heaven” brochure as my final output. However, I soon realised that I wanted a different output for my design fiction. I then decided to design a news review in the form of a film/video. I felt this would be a better output than the safer choice of a brochure. I also believed that using this format would not only help accentuate the storytelling aspect of my work that I planned to achieve, but it will also help reach a wider audience.
Lastly, to create a more encompassing experience for my video, I considered using first-person narration and a “Positive-Negative” perspective approach to evaluate users’ experience of their Digital Heaven encounters/opinions.
