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    • Weiternutzung als OER ausdrücklich erlaubt: Dieses Werk und dessen Inhalte sind - sofern nicht anders angegeben - lizenziert unter CC BY-NC 4.0. Nennung gemäß TULLU-Regel bitte wie folgt: "Metaverse" von Armin Beverungen, lizenziert unter CC BY-NC 4.0. Ausgenommen von der Lizenz sind anders lizenzierte Inhalte, Werke und Arbeiten. Bilder im OER stammen von Dall-E, generiert von Armin Beverungen. (see https://moodle.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/course/view.php?id=54192)


      This course is a product of the teaching research project "Medienpraxiswissen" (http://medienpraxiswissen.rub.de/). As an Open Educational Resource, it serves to make a course from the project accessible to other teachers.

      The course is designed for media practice teaching. The aim of the course is to familiarise students with the the media, technical, social and economic aspects of (visions of) the metaverse.

      The course offers a mix of conceptual, exploratory and practical work. There are regular readings to accompany sessions, and some sessions are mostly about discussions and reflections, yet the majority of the session are hands-on explorations of media technologies associated with the metaverse and visits to current instantiations of virtual or augmented realities. This requires some willingness and ability on the part of teachers and students for technical matters, i.e. installing software, learning to use some software e.g. for scanning or manipulating scans. It also means students need to have access to a computer that works with the software that is used.

      Course Description

      ‘The metaverse’ does not yet exist. It merely exists as many different visions of a future of computing, especially a future that Meta and Mark Zuckerberg would like to shape. Meanwhile, the history of computing has been marked by visions of augmented or virtual reality. Precursors of today’s visions are not only game worlds or earlier virtual environments like Second Life, but visions of how computers and their sensors are integrated into environments. At the same time, many media-technical elements of the metaverse-to-come already exist, such as games engines or VR glasses. This seminar therefore deals with visions of metaverses and their current media-technical instantiations. It will look at some of the back stories of current and future metaverses, and then take a critical look at current media, technical, social and economic aspects of existing offerings (e.g. the blockchain-based Decentraland). Practically, some of these virtual and augmented environments will be explored through participation, and students will use some of the tools to build virtual environments, such as scanners for creating virtual 3D objects, and the world builders integrated into different virtual platforms. The aim of the seminar is to historically classify and critically reflect on some essential aspects of metaverses, in order to enable an informed media-practical approach to them.

      Course Work and Exam

      The class can be assessed in different ways. It was conceived as a media practice class in which there is only coursework and no examinations. It assumes regular participation from students. The main task is to work in groups to build a virtual room, including scanning objects and working on virtual models of objects in a 3D graphics suite. 

      Students can come up with their own thematic ideas for the virtual rooms, which should ideally be related to the class (such as general questions of virtuality, of embodiment, of scanning / importing / reproducing realities in VR, of the busines models of the metaverse, and so on). This could be anything from an archive of weird VR interfaces or worlds, an archive of virtual reality technologies such as different iterations of VR glasses, to an exhibition of famous NFTs, of AR art or games, to an exhibition of glitch art highlighting the inherent challenges of scanning, etc.

      Students ideally complete rooms by the end of the class so there can be a session dedicated to exploring the rooms - potentially in VR - and to discuss the issues addressed in them, possibly as part of a student exhibition.

      In addition, students could be asked to reflect on their experience of building a virtual room, partaking in the group work, and focusing on one of the topics covered in class specifically. A length of around 1000 words would be appropriate and productive. Alternatively, students could be asked to write longer exploratory or reflective essay as an exam format.

    • Ankündigungen Forum/Blog

  • 1st Session: Welcome and Introduction

    • In the first session, students and teachers introduce themselves. The main aim here is to clarify mutual expectations. Teachers present the course concept while students can be given the opportunity to make suggestions for adapting the syllabus (e.g. other thematic focuses, adapting the formats for coursework or exams, etc.).

      Expectations regarding learning goals and workload should also be clarified. Especially the combination of conceptual, exploratory and practical work requires clear communication regarding the workload and the need for organisation. It should also be emphasised that students need to arrange the technical setup for the class early on and need to make sure they have the suitable equipment and ability to set up the required software (or, alternatively, the teachers make sure there are suitable computer rooms and tutor support available for these matters).

      The topic of the class could also be introduced in a general manner. Since the metaverse is a shifiting object there may be more timely materials to suitably introduce students to the topic and what is at stake. Two potential and contrasting starting points could be:

      Ball M (2022) The Metaverse Will Reshape Our Lives. Let’s Make Sure It’s for the Better. Time, 9 September. Available at: https://time.com/6197849/metaverse-future-matthew-ball/ (accessed 17 October 2022).

      Tech Won’t Save Us (2021) Why the Metaverse Must Be Stopped w/ Brian Merchant - Tech Won’t Save Us. Available at: https://techwontsave.us/episode/88_why_the_metaverse_must_be_stopped_w_brian_merchant.html (accessed 23 August 2023).

  • 2nd Session: Technical Setup

    • Since a lot of technology is required to partake in this class, it is worth to have a session early on to make sure all students are set up technically, with suitable computers, and are installing the software required.

      The software stack is an important decision to make for the class. It was conceived to include the workflow scanning objects - working on 3D models from the scans - importing scans into virtual rooms - building a virtual room. For each step different kinds of apps and software are available. In a previous iteration at RUB this tech stack worked and is therefore recommended:

      https://scaniverse.com/ - a 3D scanning app. There are also alternatives, e.g. https://poly.cam/, https://www.capturingreality.com/. Many of these work very well on iOS, not all are available for Android. It is also worth pointing out that these work with photogrammetry, creating 3D models from photographs, or with LIDAR. Experience in the classroom has shown that LIDAR doesn't necessarily produce better 3D models for use, but it is worth making this part of the discussion and experience of students. It is also worth checking file format compatibility with the software subsequently used.

      https://www.blender.org/ - as an open source 3D graphics suite. This is the most popular open source software for working on 3D models and is relatively intuitive. It has far too many capabilities to be covered in a short class on the metaverse, but serves the purpose very well of seeing how scans are worked on, what vector graphics are, how complex it is to think about representing reality in virtual models, etc. Most alternatives, e.g. https://www.sketchup.com/, are rather expensive. Blender exports well to Hubs

      https://hubs.mozilla.com/ - this is Mozilla's platform for 3D immersive worlds. Some of the other metaverse / virtual world platforms offer the ability to create virtual rooms or even worlds, however Hubs is free and reasonably intuitive and with sufficient capability to have students understand what it takes to create virtual experiences. There is a free plan.

      It would also be possible to integrate game engines like Unity or Unreal, which would fit in between Blender and Hubs. However, this raises the level of complexity significantly, and is only recommend in contexts where students have significant prior technical expertise and there is sufficient time to explore the software in class with assistance.

       

      For the VR experiences, the following software packages also need to be installed and users need to create a profile:

      https://secondlife.com/support/downloads/

      https://decentraland.org/

  • 3rd Session: What is the Metaverse?

    • This session is for exploring how 'the metaverse' is talked about and why.

      One could start with a student quiz asking students to define the metaverse or to come up with some examples of the metaverse today, which would be a good start for a discussion.

      There is a lot of varied material available for exploring how people talk about the metaverse. An obvious starting point is Mark Zuckerberg's announcement of the metaverse and the rebranding of Facebook as Meta. Some of these materials my be useful:

      Matthew Ball is a tech evangelist who is read e.g. by Zuckerberg and has made an effort to conceptualize the metaverse. This video provides a good overview:

         

      There is also Ball's book and a review by Paris Marx:
       
      Ball M (2022) The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything. First edition. New York, NY: Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company.
       
      Marx P (2023) The always-future revolution: on Matthew Ball’s The Metaverse. Overland literary journal, 8 May. Available at: https://overland.org.au/2023/05/the-always-future-revolution-on-matthew-balls-the-metaverse/(accessed 12 June 2023).
       
      And some articles focusing on context and on the realities of Meta's metaverse:
       
      Nosthoff A-V and Maschewski F (2023) The Desert of the Virtual. Dissent Magazine, 23 February. Available at: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/the-desert-of-the-virtual (accessed 23 February 2023).
       
      Murray P (2023) Who Is Still Inside the Metaverse? Intelligencer, 15 March. Available at: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/mark-zuckerberg-metaverse-meta-horizon-worlds.html (accessed 20 March 2023).

  • 4th Session: VR and its Histories - Second Life

    • This session is for exploring the histories of virtual reality and precursors of the metaverse. The focus is on SecondLife.

      Students are asked to read chapter two from Tom Boellstorff's book on SecondLife, with a focus on a history of virtuality (in relation to writing, fiction, dreaming, game worlds):

      Boellstorff T (2008) Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Chapter 2: History, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc77h1s.7]

      This video provides a good insight into Boellstorff's project (themes are escapism, real estate, coins, collaboration):

       

      After discussing the history of virtuality leading up to SecondLife, it is time to visit SecondLife as it is today. This can take place in class or potentially the class can meet virtually in SecondLife. Either a teacher or students should prepare the visit, e.g. it could be preceded by a preliminary visit where a teacher or student identifies and selects particular places to visit to highlight particular features of SL.

       

      This video may also be useful to understand how SecondLife relates to the metaverse today:

       

  • 5th Session: AR and its Histories - Pokémon Go

    • Since the metaverse seeks to integrate virtual and augmented reality, this session looks at the history of augmented reality, leading up to Pokémon Go as the most successful AR game. There are two elements to this session: the first is a discussion of the history of AR in relation to gaming, the second is playing Pokémon Go.

      This chapter by Dale Leorke provides a good overview of the history of location-based games. If time and reading capacity allows one could add the next chapter which takes the history forward. Important would be to point out how exploratory and creative the use of location-based games was initially, and how restrictive and commercial Pokémon Go is in comparison, notwithstanding the advances in the integration of 'meatspace' and virtual space:

      Leorke D (2019) A Definition and Brief History of Location-Based Games (2001–08). In: Leorke D (ed.) Location-Based Gaming: Play in Public Space. Singapore: Springer, pp. 17–44. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-0683-9_2.

      This video provides an insight into an influential early AR game that is mentioned in the chapter and is worth discussing:

       
      In the second part of the class, students should make sure to have installed Pokémon Go on their phones, and they should simply venture out to play the game for 30 minutes or so. This could also be done ideally prior to the class. The idea is to gather an experience of AR, to note the difficulty of integrating VR elements in their environments, to think about the overlaying of meatspace with virtual space and whether not having the app on produces a kind of fear of missing out, etc.
       
      https://pokemongolive.com/en/ 

  • 6th Session: Group Setup and Scans

    • This session has two purposes: setting up groups and working on scans.

      To prepare for the class, students can be asked to use one of the scanning apps on the smart phones linked to above, and to have already scanned either a few objects or spaces. Generally, the more students engage with the techniques of scanning the better the results will be, as learning curves are steep (e.g. how to hold the phone, speed of movement, direction of movement, etc.).

      Students can bring the scans to class or upload / send them in advance, then during the session experiences of scanning can be discussed and scans can be worked on with Blender or a similar software. The idea of working on the scans is to see how difficult it is to generate models of physical objects, to see how models work (e.g. with vectors and polygons), and to gain some practical expertise.

      It would also be helpful to offer an additional tutorial to enable students to learn how to use Blender and introduce them to some of the core functionality.

      It is also worth pointing out issues with file formats. For Blender documentation can be found here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/files/import_export.html. For Mozilla Hubs .glb or .gltf work best.

      The text by Steyerl serves as background reading. It highlights among other things issues of documentation and objectification, indexicality and fictionality. It is worth discussing in some detail in relation to the very practical work of scanning and modifying scanned objects.

       

      Steyerl H (2017) Ripping Reality: Blind Spots and Wrecked Data in 3D. In: Duty Free Art: Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War. London: Verso, pp. 191–205. (An open access version is available at: http://eipcp.net/e/projects/heterolingual/files/hitosteyerl/)
       
      The Nefertiti Hack may be useful as a discussion point around documentation, copyright and accesibility: https://alloversky.com/puzzlepieces/the-other-nefertiti. 

       

  • 7th Session: Really Existing Metaverses / Game Engines

    • This session has two purposes: first, to understand how important game engines are for creating virtual worlds. (This could be amended with a further practical session on game engines, e.g. Unity or Unreal, and a tutorial on how to use that. This could be included in the workflow of the practical project. Since this requires a high level of technical expertise, and a lot of extra time, this has not been excluded in this class). 

      Second, it is to look at different ways in which 'really existing metaverses' exist today, beyond virtual worlds and games. The examples here can be manifold, with different purposes, like simulation (in architecture, design and planning), management (in digital twins) or heritage (in documentation). Below are some possible examples, although students may be invited to peruse the webiste of Unity, Unreal, or the Voices of VR podcast which provides numerous examples. 

       

       

      The text by Chia is useful background reading, and explains in some detail how central game engines have become for the practical work  of game design and how this has lead to the automation of many a creative process.

      Chia A (2022) The metaverse, but not the way you think: game engines and automation beyond game development. Critical Studies in Media Communication 39(3): 191–200. DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2022.2080850. (Open Access)

       

  • 8th Session: Blockchain, NFTs and DAOs

    • This session serves as an introduction to some alternative technical infrastructure of the metaverse. Very broadly, blockchains, NFTs and DAOs serve as a different infrastructure and architecture for a metaverse not built on data economies (like with Meta) but on decentralization and commercialization.

      These topics are very complicated so the session only seeks to offer a basic introduction. If there is more time in the class and depending on student interest the session could be split up into two or three.

      The blockchain is the technology behind cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, but also Ethereum and other open source distributed systems which enable what are called smart contracts. 

      https://andersbrownworth.com/blockchain/ - this Blockchain Demo is a very useful took to explain how blockchain works. The videos are helpful and students can themselves play with hashes, blocks, and chains. 

       

      Whereas Bitcoin or Ether are fungible tokens, meaning all tokens are the same, non-fungible tokens or NFTs are singular tokens. They usually register ownership on a blockchain, but may also include e.g. actual image files. They have become the primary means by which ownership is regulated and value is governed in the blockchain-based internet, including parts of the metaverse such as Decentraland. 

      This video explains some of the functions of and hype around NFTs. It would also be interesting to look at e.g. https://opensea.io to see how NFTs get traded.

      The essay by Bogost discusses the impact of NFTs on the blockchain-based internet as a matter of commercialization and speculation.

      Bogost I (2022) The Internet Is Just Investment Banking Now. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/02/future-internet-blockchain-investment-banking/621480/(accessed 7 February 2022). (A freely accessible version is available at: https://bogost.com/writing/the-internet-is-just-investment-banking-now/)
       
       
      Decentralized autonomous organizations or DAOs are built on blockchains and smart contracts. Basically, the idea is to govern organizations through blockchains, usually with tokens needed to partake in decision-making. The smart contracts that govern DAOs can be very different. Practically, it could be worth looking e.g. at the DAO that governs Decentraland: https://dao.decentraland.org/en/.

       

       

  • 9th Session: Decentraland

    • This session is for exploring Decentraland as a decentralized version of the metaverse. As with the visit to SecondLife, this can be done remotely with the meeting taking place in Decentraland.

      There are a few things students and teachers need to do prior to the session:

      - install the Decentraland client if required (e.g. for Mac)

      - create an account if desired (for a more complete experience)

      - create a Metamask (https://metamask.io/) account and link it the Decentraland account (for a more complete experience, but not required)

      - set up an avatar (and note the options, aesthetics, NFTs...)

      - enter the Decentraland and run through the first little tutorial (with the bee).

       

      There are many places one could arrange to meet, e.g. the Tram Line, here https://places.decentraland.org/place/?position=50.-49 .

      There are a few basic things to do here, like learning how to communicate via chat and voice, and more generally how to 'socialize' in Decentraland.
       

      After that there are a few things to do, depending on what experiences one wants to explore:

      https://places.decentraland.org/place/?position=-29.55 - Wondermine as an example of a game, including MANA mining.

      https://places.decentraland.org/place/?position=54.84 - Sotheby's as an example of companies setting up in Decentraland, for a discussion as to the whys and hows.

      Check out https://events.decentraland.org/ for a current big event to get a sense of how big crowds work on the platform.

       

      More generally, if you haven't already done so please also check out how Decentraland documents its on operations and governance, you could start at https://dao.decentraland.org/.

  • 10th Session: Group Work and Mozilla Hubs

    • This session serves two purposes: first, it gives students time to work together in groups on their projects and to feed back on progress so far. It also allows for troubleshooting with scanning and working on scans. Second, the session is to guide students through Hubs and to get started in groups on setting up rooms.

      For preparation, students should make sure that they have already set up a Hubs room, acquainted themselves with some of the functionality of Hubs (https://hubs.mozilla.com/docs/welcome.html is a good start), and upload some scans to see how that works.

      Ideally, this is complemented with a tutorial offer that provides a more detailed introduction and support for working with Hubs.

  • 11th Session: Virtual Reality Glasses

    • This session is for experiencing virtual reality glasses. In Bochum this was achieved through a visit to the Virtual Humanities Lab, which is equipped with a set of VR glasses, on which various games and VR experiences are available. Alternatively students could bring their own VR glasses if they own or have access to any. 

      The idea of the session is that students gain a sensory and embodied experience of virtual reality. A particular focus should be put on the visual and auditive features of the VR experiences, to the exclusion of other senses and a broader experience of embodiment, but also on the relation to avatars.

      The text by Boellstorff serves as background reading for a discussion about embodiment.

      Boellstorff T (2011) Virtuality: Placing the Virtual Body: Avatar, Chora, Cypherg. In: Mascia‐Lees FE (ed.) A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment. 1st ed. Wiley, pp. 504–520. DOI: 10.1002/9781444340488.ch29. (An open access version is available at https://escholarship.org/content/qt14z8336m/qt14z8336m.pdf)

  • 12th Session: Visiting Virtual Worlds

    • Depending on the length of the class, there may be scope for and use in providing a couple of further practical sessions in which virtual rooms are designed with students. 

      A final session could take place virtually if possible where everyone meets in the individual Hubs rooms to visit them and take a tour / take part in an event organized by the individual groups. Ideally the virtual rooms will address at least one of the topics discussed in class, so that the visits could also represent a closing discussion of the class more broadly.

      The session could also involve a final discussion including an outlook of the future of the metaverse. This could involve current material reflecting on the state of the metaverse; some of the virtual rooms could also speculate on the future of the metaverse. 

      In 2023 one of the articles to discuss the futures of the metaverse could have been:

      Zitron E (n.d.) RIP Metaverse, we hardly knew ye. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/metaverse-dead-obituary-facebook-mark-zuckerberg-tech-fad-ai-chatgpt-2023-5 (accessed 9 May 2023).
       
      A closing session could also be used to gather feedback on the class and to discuss exams if they are offered.