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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2038380

This paper discusses the creation of typographic systems as artworks in three dimensional online builder's worlds, also known as the metaverse. An installation based upon text will be presented as an exemplar that will attempt to delineate the playful approach that has been taken whilst constructing a typographic art ecology that can be traversed and experienced through the agency of avatars. The focus is upon how such screen-based virtual three dimensional spaces may utilize text within a context that departs from the primary attribute with which writing has inherently been associated - namely the display of informational content. In such environments semantics may be displaced through the usage of text as a playful device, displayed as artifacts that are riddle-like configurations, or constructs that are meant to be understood through means other than straightforward reading; bringing about states of heightened engagement and 'play' through their manipulation or indeed simply by being immersed inside them. The awareness that providing a means for straightforward reading might not be an appropriate goal in this regard lead to a search for sources that would address a need for play, for personal readings and interpretations; in other words, text that is meant to be 'felt' as an artwork, rather than to be 'read' as informational content.