Reality check

Mark Jackson

For the majority, our recent lives have been consumed by the fear of COVID-19, keeping us behind closed doors. Daily exercise, essential shopping trips, medical need and caring for a vulnerable person are almost our only permissible excuses for leaving the confines of our houses. Those lucky enough to have outdoor spaces tend to their garden, or watch their neighbour desecrate the border hedge out of boredom. With social distancing restricting our ability to access the natural environment (and clip our neighbour round the ear), most notably in urbanised areas, what role do virtual spaces have now and in future?

There is a wonderful moment in the TV series Star Trek – Picard, where, even with the vast expanse of space to look upon, the lead character Jean-Luc Picard chooses to reflect and recuperate in the holo-suite, which depicts his former vineyard retreat. The concept of being spatially confined, just as Jean-Luc felt in space, is not dissimilar to our current predicament. Places familiar to us still exist, in some state at least, but only as accurately as we can recall them (or via a dated Google Street View if you are lucky). It is actually telling of many people’s reality even beyond this pandemic.

My Gran just turned 90. She is confined to a care home in Brisbane. I was impressed with the provision of open space around the facility when I visited, but I know it won’t be familiar to her. For 25 years she resided at a large family property on Keona Road, Mcdowall, which was demolished in 2004. I had spent much time in the extensive garden there and the experience resonated with me over the years. Recently, I began pulling together family photos of the property and recollecting my own experiences to reference in a digital 3D model of the property, which is intended to be experienced in VR. Once complete, I hope this will provide some comfort to family members, including my Gran. I think the model could capture a sense of place and time, and demonstrate meaning and value from the shared memory of a landscape. Would I have undertaken the project if it weren’t for the lockdown? Perhaps not. This pandemic has highlighted some human truths, that we are drawn to nature just as we are to one another. We want to interact, even if it is via a screen.

It is no coincidence there has been a scramble for VR headsets, with most lines now sold out. This is the conduit to many people’s exposure to the landscape, real world or abstract. Suddenly, latency; field of view; degrees of movement and the screen door effect become more relevant in our quest for immersion.

Artificial landscapes or ‘surroscapes’ (surrogate landscapes) are not a substitute for real world landscapes, but they have purpose in raising our expectations of them, reminding us of their virtues, and empowering us to design and play test them through extended reality. Human behaviour is echoed in the virtual world, as is our affinity for the sublime.

Virtual landscapes.

© Place Jam® 2020

Mark Jackson is a landscape architect, digital placemaker, and founder of Place Jam®. In addition to his work in the field, he is a public speaker, published author, associate lecturer at MMU, and Digital Realities lead within the LI Digital Practice Group.