2021 CAT A - ViRtual opportUNITY
ViRtual opportUNITY expresses the idea of using modern digital technologies, espesially virtual and augmented reality, as the able ones to confront contemporary social challenges. A digital method that offers the ability to socialise even though conditions may not be conductive.
Virtual landscapes, to some extend imitates real landscapes, are considered the product of the interaction between human-beings and their environment, although virtual environments exist only as codes on a computer. They are essentially considered as a co-construction between a (digital) environment (created by technology, the interface and the intention of the designers) and the personal qualities of the person experiencing it. They are NOW being used for coping with current social challenges. In the last two years, during pandemic, as a result of spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in addition to obvious health effects, humanity has faced new social challenges. The experience of a virtual landscape allowed an easier everyday living in the unprecedented reality that we were violently introduced. When every previous condition was changed, every familiar landscape seemed inaccessible and took shape exclusively in our mental journeys and where all kinds of social relations were, frozen, tested or forgotten. The organization and conduct of social activities, HERE, in virtual space has replaced previous habits. Moreover, it is remarkable that the landscapes, urban, suburban, rural and so on, came to life through a mosaic of orthodontically arranged pixels for academic purposes. To fulfill them, the virtual landscapes were used, individually and in groups, as a reflection of the elements and characteristics of under study landscapes. The virtual, social presence reflected all the desire and need for the experiencing the real landscape which in each lesson, as a group or individually, was designed but perhaps never really experienced.
