Image via The Meeting Place
Meshing together all the areas that have been making headlines lately—non-fungible tokens, VR, metaverse—is a new interactive token called The Meeting Place.
As its name suggests, it’s indeed a meeting place, but with a virtual twist. It’s part installation and part architectural design with roots in virtual reality (VR), inviting its users to treat it as they would any physical work or leisure space.
“After years of virtual meetings and video calls, countless people working from home feel disconnected, uninspired, and detached,” the creators point out in the project manifesto.
“Despite being three-dimensional creatures, we continue to operate behind our two-dimensional screens, and one thing remains certain: we have not fully figured out how to connect virtually.”
An instantly recognizable hot pink hue soaks the space, which can be adapted to various uses such as hosting a virtual event, transforming into a meeting room, or simply being a place to meet up for a quick chat.
Designed by Benny Or Studio and artist Cyril Lancelin, the NFT is integrated with Spatial, which is a 3D design and AR/VR platform. However, it can be used with other metaverse platforms too. In order to be “in” the space, users can upload images in 2D or models in 3D and interact with them like they would if they were real, according to creator Benny Or.
Image via The Meeting Place
Its conceptualization stems from the belief that the best human innovations happen organic interactions, and with having had to move things largely online, there’s a risk of losing out on that because the digital environments we currently have are hindering this.
Or tells Hypebeast that The Meeting Place is a “vision for what the metaverse can become—a place of beauty and inspiration.” It aims to close the gap between virtual experience and physical space, hence its familiar-yet-surreal setting of floating in the sky.
Because why create something in an attempt to replicate real life, when you could cast the laws of gravity aside and come up with something entirely new and—for now—structurally impossible?
“Unrestrained by physics and limited only by our imaginations, our virtual spaces have the potential to inspire, challenge, and even love us,” the studio prophesizes.
The Meeting Place will go on sale as an NFT on the marketplace SuperRare on November 18, 2021 at noon EST. The auction will last two days. While the NFT is currently hosted on Spatial, it can be moved at a later date if the buyer so wishes.
Introducing The Meeting Place, the world’s 1st interactive environment NFT. Hosted on @spatialxr the 3D space is ready to go in VR. Both art and architecture, it is our vision for a better Metaverse. Dropping on @SuperRare 11/18. More at https://t.co/PI66VK4fMK #NFTs #NFTNYC #VR pic.twitter.com/QK45Vc0ghk
— The Meeting Place (@TMPNFT) November 1, 2021
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