Hybrid Community, or how to create a virtual watercooler

A workshop focusing on mesh modeling, texturing, mozilla hubs led by Bika Rebek with Guest Matt Shaw.

The watercooler effect is a popular explanation of scientific evidence showing that people in organizations are more productive the closer they are to each other physically and the more likely they are to run into each other. How can we recreate some of these serendipitous encounters or find new modes of engagement that have similarly beneficial effects online? The first lecture in the series will take us through a series of online space and strategies that experiment with this type of connection. Architects as spatial thinkers are uniquely positioned to design online social spaces and think about possible productive intersections between real life and virtual encounters. Students will enter a virtual environment together and learn how to import images, live-feed and 3d models into a collective VR model.

Organized as part of the Fall 2020 Blended Learning series. This series of lectures and workshops is designed to help students find their own path through creating virtual content deeply anchored in the realities of today. Additional events in this series are: Hybrid Modeling, Hybrid Activism, and Hybrid Practice.