Meet Me in the Metaverse: We invite future-facing creatives to reimagine design classics

The result is a marriage of Kjærholm’s ethos and the duo’s digital practice. The PK0 chair sits balanced on an environment crafted by Chris and Christie, as floral forms and floating textures attach to its sides. “I think you have to ask yourself, when working within a purely digital space, ‘How can I replace this sense of tactility through the materiality of the work?’” says Christie. The pair were drawn to Kjærholm’s use of materiality “and almost the benign idea that certain materials belong to a certain form”. The result is an “almost ‘alien-like’ feeling to some of the surfaces that maybe feels a little unsettling but also beautiful,” Christie explains. “I think in a way we are very much doing what Kjærholm did, but in a digitally native format.”

Their use of flora and fauna leans more into what fans of the duo may be familiar with from their practice – up until this year, Chris and Christie operated jointly as Pitch Studios but now concentrate on their individual practices while still collaborating on projects such as this one. “Flora has always been a big part of our visual language and in a way it’s something that almost anyone can recognise, no matter where you are from or what environment you have been influenced by,” says Chris, with Christie adding: “Kjærholm wanted to encourage a sense of harmony and equilibrium and I think the way we’ve created a composition with a variety of objects, all hanging in this sort of ‘delicate balance’ is a way to pay homage to this concept.”

This sense of balance and equilibrium felt like an apt way to work with the PK0 Chair, given its physical shape and construction. “One thing we noticed was that the chair is made of two solid pieces, which are (we assume) fabricated separately but then joined together as its final form,” says Christie. This modular effect then “fits together like a puzzle piece,” Chris notes. “In a way, that concept runs very closely to the idea of interdependence of ecosystems that our video commission focuses on.”

As well as creating an animated artwork to be shown within our Meet Me in the Metaverse installation, Chris and Christie have designed an AR filter inspired by their piece and our exhibition’s sentiment. When used, abstract objects designed by the duo will either begin to fill your own environment (if using your back camera) or rotate around your profile (if using the front). Aiming to provide “an overall sense of joy and playfulness” when exploring design’s role within digital spaces, “we almost imagine the metaverse to be this inviting and delightful playground,” adds Christie. “So we wanted to create a digital sculpture garden, where the user could interact with different objects, and imagine a new reality.”

Utilising AR in this way in particular references Chris’ own fondness for the medium’s “functional capabilities that can help enhance creative outputs,” he says. “For example, I love the idea of using AR to measure the set up of a mural in the physical space.” The pair hope that their AR filter – inspired by digital-only artworks, which were in turn inspired by classic and contemporary design objects – will “encourage a softer, more intentful approach to creative technologies and creativity as a whole.” They also argue that it’s never been easier to experiment: “Using these tools is super accessible compared to emergent technologies of the past, the barrier to entry is a lot lower. If we can share a bit of insight into this, we can encourage more people to start using them and incorporate them into their practices.”

We hope that Meet Me in the Metaverse as an installation evokes in our visitors this sentiment of experimentation within digital practices. While there is much discussion around Web 3.0 and its possible effects on our industry, by merging the physical with the digital across this exhibition, we aim to showcase how any designer can use these developments and create unconventionally inspiring spaces for design in the future.