Using 2D photography as a 3D constructional tool within the metaverse

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/mvcr.1.1.35_1

Photography is a powerful two dimensional representation tool to document three dimensional volumes like architecture. It is possible to manipulate photos with two dimensional tools like Photoshop in order to suggest new three dimensional re/formations and re/interpret architecture. One can alternatively use two dimensional textures as mappings to create realistic three dimensional model renderings. This project is a combination of these two approaches: photographing architecture, turning the resulting photos into transparent image files, and then mapping these photos onto three dimensional volumes in order to create a ‘new’ architecture from an ‘existing’ architecture. One of the advantages of using photographs to create architecture is that the photo pool can easily be composed of visuals from various cultures and you may end up using an amalgam of visuals from, say, so-called opposite cultures. This possibility reminds the peaceful collaboration of musicians from different cultures to create a unique music. In addition, this act can also be taken as a migration of media through appropriation of photography for three dimensional volume creation and re/presentation. At this point, we are talking about a double representation, since photography is a representation tool already and it gains another representational dimension when it is remapped onto three dimensional volumes for the construction of an alternative reality. This article concentrates on using a representation tool (photography) to construct a three dimensional space (architecture) within a virtual three dimensional environment (Second Life®). During the process the concepts of perception, reality, cultural context, re/presentation and appropriation will be examined.