Afterlife 016b

Afterlife 016b

Online Ritual Experience

Overview

AFTERLIFE 016b1 marks the beginning of the AFTERLIFE series, initiating a long-term exploration into immersive online art. The project begins with a collage and experimentation of religious sound collection, digital sculpture, and ritual space research, aiming to develop an immersive online creative and research space.

Category

Online Experience

3D Web

Year

2019

This work is an online experience in a real-time 3D environment, allowing users to navigate virtual perspectives, listen to soundscapes, and explore paths leading to the "afterlife" on the internet. The project utilizes a "network multiplayer system" and a "real-time 3D environment based on game engines" as its technical core, constructing a scalable new virtual communication interface in native digital space. It experiments with different forms of immersive experiences, digital aesthetics, narrative structures, community relationships, and virtual performances, while also reflecting on the technological and political issues and possibilities in a post-infection era.

AFTERLIFE is grounded in the concept of "online afterlife," drawing from Asian-oriented religious beliefs, views on life and death, and technological animism to create imaginative spaces. It explores the mythology of information and the life and death of digital bodies in internet technology societies. Simultaneously, through the real-time 3D environment and multiplayer connection experimental framework, it investigates various possible forms of virtual ritual experiences.

Through AFTERLIFE 016b, we have validated the feasibility of the Null-Frame technical framework and completed technical feasibility tests such as real-time 3D engine and web integration, multiplayer connection systems, and interactive systems. Developed by NAXS, the "customized multiplayer connection system" allows viewers to manipulate a digital avatar in the 3D environment and see the avatars of other viewers who are online simultaneously. Similar to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games), interactions between virtual characters bring possibilities for narrative, emotional intimacy, and community connections. It is conceivable that if this concept continues to develop into virtual performances in online art, it will generate infinite imaginative spaces.

Credits