Part of Hybrid Realities :Lab 2 (Lab → Output)
Virtual installation, Newart.city
Grpahic Deisgn begins with a literal translation: a virtual recreation of the artist’s physical studio and gallery space of the same name.
Initially, the environment presents itself as a familiar mode of viewing art. Visitors encounter the gallery from outside, looking through the window much as they would on a street. The experience mirrors the conventions of physical exhibition architecture and the passive role often assigned to the viewer.
However, the work subtly disrupts these expectations. The virtual environment encourages visitors to deviate from the rules of physical space — to move through walls, circumvent boundaries and explore the structure from impossible perspectives.
Through this shift, the installation reflects on the agency offered by digital environments. What begins as a faithful reconstruction becomes a prompt to question why physical gallery conventions persist within virtual contexts, and whether virtual spaces might enable alternative forms of spatial engagement.
Grpahic Deisgn uses replication as a starting point in order to explore the freedoms and contradictions of building exhibition environments that are no longer constrained by physical architecture.
Nathan Smith