We recently held an immersive workshop in Zuojheng, exploring the potential of the metaverse to digitally revitalize rural communities. In this hands-on experience, participants engaged in a collaborative game where virtual avatars repaired lantern installations, traveled through time, and explored historical versions of Zuojheng’s old street, blending past and present in a playful yet meaningful way.
… 像素惡地-左鎮小聚第三版像素惡地網址 https://app.gather.town/app/8XifmgUaoJhtMaHx/Badlands
Our Pixel Badlands Project started in 2019 during the COVID outbreak and is now 6-year old. In this journey, we encountered several difficulties, including technical, social-cultural, and educational issues. However, our local partners in ZuoZhen have always gave us the best support. We also found friendships world-wide, giving us inspirations and technical tips. Here is a short overview of what we have done in this 6 years:
… Pixel Badlands 像素惡地
The final presentation of our class Reflexive Methods in Design/Art Practices was given on the platform gather.town. The subject of this semester is “landscape design”, in which we generally follow Burkhardt’s concept of Strollology. According to my teaching plan, students will create different artefacts to shape the experience of landscape. Further, by installing the artefacts physically in the field, we can stroll in the “designed” landscape and create a reflexive experience. However, due to the pandemic breakout in Taiwan, all activities on the campus were cancelled!!
… Design Presentation in the Pixel Field
“selections from the photographs taken by me during my eastern travels would prove useful, seeing that each photograph was taken to represent something peculiar to the lands and to the people I visited” (letters to Wellcome, Thomson, 1920). Today, the chief of a small bookstore represented this history in front of us…
… a bookstore chief, a photo, and a history
We are very glad to have our local masters in our class and have this wonderful introduction to the characters of bamboo. We not only learned the material from theory but also experienced it through practices. While bamboo is currently used as environment-friendly material, we are looking for its future possibility – aesthetic, functional, and also technological.
… Let’s play Bamboo
xtdesign.org 