The digital spaces and realities of our connected world are in constant flux. In the past 30 years, we have transitioned from the flat, slow loading, broken link, early machinations of the World Wide Web to 100-million user online virtual worlds.

‘Unfolding Spaces’ views metaverses, the digital environments we inhabit, as a visionary, almost utopian space of learning, research, and open communication.

During the programme, we will discuss, present, debate and test interactions within a metaverse, and consider its potentials for education and research on five layers: space, hybridity, power structures, liveness, and building together. Casting aside the dystopian problematic of spending our lives online while the world around us decays, ‘Unfolding Spaces’ will investigate the opportunities of a metaverse as a more utopian place, part of a desirable future where education and research can prosper: A geographically distributed venue which offers new tools, relevancy and context to the physical world in which we coexist.