Exploring the Metaverse: Virtual Worlds, Hybrid Spaces, and Extended Realities

Interdisciplinary study of history, theory, criticism, practice of digital places, spaces, things, identities. Expanded idea of the metaverse: maps, apps, virtual reality, augmented reality, games. Deep geographies; sociocultural, aesthetic, & expressive effects. Hybrid realities, digital divides, authorship, authority, biases, constraints. Links to old & analog media, social media, archives, psychogeography, digital cities, utopias/dystopias, digital humanities debates. Theories of space, place, memory. Museums, cultural heritage, art, journalism, and popular media. Hands-on authoring. Weekly blogs, critical research paper, digital final projects. No specific technical experience required.