‘You meet the woman from the artwork’
Michel van der Aa (51)
Profession: composer and director
Link to the metaverse: uses virtual reality as part of his art projects
“Because of the coronavirus, all my concerts were canceled and I lived in a crazy new reality. I saw all those well-intentioned initiatives by artists who in panic wanted to give themselves a ‘digital face’ and streamed their concerts to the living room. At the time I thought: there are opportunities here that are not being seized. I don’t want to watch a concert behind a computer screen, but rather use the internet to interact with my audience.
“For art, there are an incredible number of opportunities with the metaverse. You can give visitors a very personal, intense experience with a work of art or an artist. As an artist you can create something in this way in which the presence of the visitor influences what is played or said.
“In eight, from 2019, I went the furthest in that. This VR installation [virtual reality] portrays the life story of a woman; visitors can walk freely through a world with VR glasses for fifteen minutes. You can activate that world as a visitor, by pushing against walls or grabbing things. And you meet the woman from the artwork, at different times in her life.
“Eight has made me enthusiastic about VR and I also see new opportunities as a maker. How can you ensure that you are really somewhere else and can influence your environment? Think of the visitor who enters the foyer of the theater, puts on VR glasses and enters a room with someone who plays a part in the play you are about to see.
“The power of the metaverse is precisely that interaction. The idea that we are in a parallel world is becoming more and more important, our online alter egos more and more tangible. The new generation already lives like this. I have two sons, ages 12 and 13, and their portal to the world is games. I think that as an artist I should also be present in that world.”
Also read the review of Van der Aa’s most recent performance ‘Upload’
‘A tropical island, like Fortnite without shooting’
Taco Ekkel (45)
Business: Mibo (7 employees, half a million users)
Link to the metaverse: organizes company drinks in a 3D environment
“If you work remotely, there are plenty of good services for meeting online: Zoom, Teams, Google Meet. But there is no good program for meeting colleagues in a social setting, for a drink or for a party. Have you tried that through Teams? That’s not going anywhere.
“Mibo was created when corona broke out. We thought: wouldn’t it be great if we build an environment where you can walk around a bit, join groups and talk to each other, just like in real life? Mibo is a light-hearted medium: you walk on a kind of tropical island, with your head as the webcam. There is a pool table, a campfire where you can sit, a photo camera where you can take a picture with each other. There is a beach ball on the floor that you can throw at each other. A species Fortnite without shooting.
„We are mainly used by large tech companies [onder meer Microsoft, Netflix en LinkedIn zijn klant] and smaller start-ups for whom working remotely is normal. Many companies have a social ritual every week: a way to take a break from talking about work with colleagues. If your offices are spread all over the world or your employees work everywhere, how are you going to organize a company drink? We offer a solution for that.
“The metaverse is often associated with virtual reality, but we want absolutely nothing to do with VR. If something isn’t social, it’s like a pair of glasses on your head: you can’t see each other. You do need a webcam for that. There will undoubtedly be a solution for this in the future. Maybe in time we can make a full 3D reproduction of you in a virtual environment. Such developments always take longer than you think, another five or ten years. But once it’s there, the impact is huge.”
‘Flying in a zero-gravity environment’
Rutger Zuidam (38)
Business: Odyssey (15 employees, several thousand users)
Link to the metaverse: builds software that facilitates collaboration between people in their own online 3D environments
“The rise of the metaverse can be compared to the rise of social media. It’s the next stage of the web. The internet as we know it is based on pages, but the internet we are about to get to know is about places where you come together and meet others. You really don’t have to read a book in the metaverse, but as soon as you do activities together, this world does become interesting.
„We facilitate 3D environments – for educational institutions, ministries to museums and large companies [onder meer Sapp en Vattenfall] – where activities take place where cooperation is central. Think of conferences, festivals or projects, where employees or students come together and collaborate. I was inspired by games like EVE Online, where thousands of people work together in very complex structures.
“To help promote cooperation, we can go all out by letting go of all the laws of nature. It’s more fun flying around in a new zero-gravity environment than just walking around in a digital replica of your office. In the game world they have known for a long time that this is how it works, but you can see that these environments are now going to transcend the game world.
“No, you don’t have to do that with VR glasses. Have you ever had such a thing on? After an hour it gets pretty tiring. That’s more of a perk for activities that really benefit from having participants completely shut down. Looking around and talking is fine on a laptop.
“We would never have done this without Covid. We organized hackathons: 2,000 people who come together in a large factory hall and try to build something at a rapid pace. Our events could no longer take place physically, so we made something ourselves to be able to do our hackathons digitally. A crisis throws you off balance. The trick is to embrace that and try to make it something more beautiful.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 11, 2021
‘You meet the woman from the artwork’
Michel van der Aa (51)
Profession: composer and director
Link to the metaverse: uses virtual reality as part of his art projects
“Because of the coronavirus, all my concerts were canceled and I lived in a crazy new reality. I saw all those well-intentioned initiatives by artists who in panic wanted to give themselves a ‘digital face’ and streamed their concerts to the living room. At the time I thought: there are opportunities here that are not being seized. I don’t want to watch a concert behind a computer screen, but rather use the internet to interact with my audience.
“For art, there are an incredible number of opportunities with the metaverse. You can give visitors a very personal, intense experience with a work of art or an artist. As an artist you can create something in this way in which the presence of the visitor influences what is played or said.
“In eight, from 2019, I went the furthest in that. This VR installation [virtual reality] portrays the life story of a woman; visitors can walk freely through a world with VR glasses for fifteen minutes. You can activate that world as a visitor, by pushing against walls or grabbing things. And you meet the woman from the artwork, at different times in her life.
“Eight has made me enthusiastic about VR and I also see new opportunities as a maker. How can you ensure that you are really somewhere else and can influence your environment? Think of the visitor who enters the foyer of the theater, puts on VR glasses and enters a room with someone who plays a part in the play you are about to see.
“The power of the metaverse is precisely that interaction. The idea that we are in a parallel world is becoming more and more important, our online alter egos more and more tangible. The new generation already lives like this. I have two sons, ages 12 and 13, and their portal to the world is games. I think that as an artist I should also be present in that world.”
Also read the review of Van der Aa’s most recent performance ‘Upload’
‘A tropical island, like Fortnite without shooting’
Taco Ekkel (45)
Business: Mibo (7 employees, half a million users)
Link to the metaverse: organizes company drinks in a 3D environment
“If you work remotely, there are plenty of good services for meeting online: Zoom, Teams, Google Meet. But there is no good program for meeting colleagues in a social setting, for a drink or for a party. Have you tried that through Teams? That’s not going anywhere.
“Mibo was created when corona broke out. We thought: wouldn’t it be great if we build an environment where you can walk around a bit, join groups and talk to each other, just like in real life? Mibo is a light-hearted medium: you walk on a kind of tropical island, with your head as the webcam. There is a pool table, a campfire where you can sit, a photo camera where you can take a picture with each other. There is a beach ball on the floor that you can throw at each other. A species Fortnite without shooting.
„We are mainly used by large tech companies [onder meer Microsoft, Netflix en LinkedIn zijn klant] and smaller start-ups for whom working remotely is normal. Many companies have a social ritual every week: a way to take a break from talking about work with colleagues. If your offices are spread all over the world or your employees work everywhere, how are you going to organize a company drink? We offer a solution for that.
“The metaverse is often associated with virtual reality, but we want absolutely nothing to do with VR. If something isn’t social, it’s like a pair of glasses on your head: you can’t see each other. You do need a webcam for that. There will undoubtedly be a solution for this in the future. Maybe in time we can make a full 3D reproduction of you in a virtual environment. Such developments always take longer than you think, another five or ten years. But once it’s there, the impact is huge.”
‘Flying in a zero-gravity environment’
Rutger Zuidam (38)
Business: Odyssey (15 employees, several thousand users)
Link to the metaverse: builds software that facilitates collaboration between people in their own online 3D environments
“The rise of the metaverse can be compared to the rise of social media. It’s the next stage of the web. The internet as we know it is based on pages, but the internet we are about to get to know is about places where you come together and meet others. You really don’t have to read a book in the metaverse, but as soon as you do activities together, this world does become interesting.
„We facilitate 3D environments – for educational institutions, ministries to museums and large companies [onder meer Sapp en Vattenfall] – where activities take place where cooperation is central. Think of conferences, festivals or projects, where employees or students come together and collaborate. I was inspired by games like EVE Online, where thousands of people work together in very complex structures.
“To help promote cooperation, we can go all out by letting go of all the laws of nature. It’s more fun flying around in a new zero-gravity environment than just walking around in a digital replica of your office. In the game world they have known for a long time that this is how it works, but you can see that these environments are now going to transcend the game world.
“No, you don’t have to do that with VR glasses. Have you ever had such a thing on? After an hour it gets pretty tiring. That’s more of a perk for activities that really benefit from having participants completely shut down. Looking around and talking is fine on a laptop.
“We would never have done this without Covid. We organized hackathons: 2,000 people who come together in a large factory hall and try to build something at a rapid pace. Our events could no longer take place physically, so we made something ourselves to be able to do our hackathons digitally. A crisis throws you off balance. The trick is to embrace that and try to make it something more beautiful.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 11, 2021
‘You meet the woman from the artwork’
Michel van der Aa (51)
Profession: composer and director
Link to the metaverse: uses virtual reality as part of his art projects
“Because of the coronavirus, all my concerts were canceled and I lived in a crazy new reality. I saw all those well-intentioned initiatives by artists who in panic wanted to give themselves a ‘digital face’ and streamed their concerts to the living room. At the time I thought: there are opportunities here that are not being seized. I don’t want to watch a concert behind a computer screen, but rather use the internet to interact with my audience.
“For art, there are an incredible number of opportunities with the metaverse. You can give visitors a very personal, intense experience with a work of art or an artist. As an artist you can create something in this way in which the presence of the visitor influences what is played or said.
“In eight, from 2019, I went the furthest in that. This VR installation [virtual reality] portrays the life story of a woman; visitors can walk freely through a world with VR glasses for fifteen minutes. You can activate that world as a visitor, by pushing against walls or grabbing things. And you meet the woman from the artwork, at different times in her life.
“Eight has made me enthusiastic about VR and I also see new opportunities as a maker. How can you ensure that you are really somewhere else and can influence your environment? Think of the visitor who enters the foyer of the theater, puts on VR glasses and enters a room with someone who plays a part in the play you are about to see.
“The power of the metaverse is precisely that interaction. The idea that we are in a parallel world is becoming more and more important, our online alter egos more and more tangible. The new generation already lives like this. I have two sons, ages 12 and 13, and their portal to the world is games. I think that as an artist I should also be present in that world.”
Also read the review of Van der Aa’s most recent performance ‘Upload’
‘A tropical island, like Fortnite without shooting’
Taco Ekkel (45)
Business: Mibo (7 employees, half a million users)
Link to the metaverse: organizes company drinks in a 3D environment
“If you work remotely, there are plenty of good services for meeting online: Zoom, Teams, Google Meet. But there is no good program for meeting colleagues in a social setting, for a drink or for a party. Have you tried that through Teams? That’s not going anywhere.
“Mibo was created when corona broke out. We thought: wouldn’t it be great if we build an environment where you can walk around a bit, join groups and talk to each other, just like in real life? Mibo is a light-hearted medium: you walk on a kind of tropical island, with your head as the webcam. There is a pool table, a campfire where you can sit, a photo camera where you can take a picture with each other. There is a beach ball on the floor that you can throw at each other. A species Fortnite without shooting.
„We are mainly used by large tech companies [onder meer Microsoft, Netflix en LinkedIn zijn klant] and smaller start-ups for whom working remotely is normal. Many companies have a social ritual every week: a way to take a break from talking about work with colleagues. If your offices are spread all over the world or your employees work everywhere, how are you going to organize a company drink? We offer a solution for that.
“The metaverse is often associated with virtual reality, but we want absolutely nothing to do with VR. If something isn’t social, it’s like a pair of glasses on your head: you can’t see each other. You do need a webcam for that. There will undoubtedly be a solution for this in the future. Maybe in time we can make a full 3D reproduction of you in a virtual environment. Such developments always take longer than you think, another five or ten years. But once it’s there, the impact is huge.”
‘Flying in a zero-gravity environment’
Rutger Zuidam (38)
Business: Odyssey (15 employees, several thousand users)
Link to the metaverse: builds software that facilitates collaboration between people in their own online 3D environments
“The rise of the metaverse can be compared to the rise of social media. It’s the next stage of the web. The internet as we know it is based on pages, but the internet we are about to get to know is about places where you come together and meet others. You really don’t have to read a book in the metaverse, but as soon as you do activities together, this world does become interesting.
„We facilitate 3D environments – for educational institutions, ministries to museums and large companies [onder meer Sapp en Vattenfall] – where activities take place where cooperation is central. Think of conferences, festivals or projects, where employees or students come together and collaborate. I was inspired by games like EVE Online, where thousands of people work together in very complex structures.
“To help promote cooperation, we can go all out by letting go of all the laws of nature. It’s more fun flying around in a new zero-gravity environment than just walking around in a digital replica of your office. In the game world they have known for a long time that this is how it works, but you can see that these environments are now going to transcend the game world.
“No, you don’t have to do that with VR glasses. Have you ever had such a thing on? After an hour it gets pretty tiring. That’s more of a perk for activities that really benefit from having participants completely shut down. Looking around and talking is fine on a laptop.
“We would never have done this without Covid. We organized hackathons: 2,000 people who come together in a large factory hall and try to build something at a rapid pace. Our events could no longer take place physically, so we made something ourselves to be able to do our hackathons digitally. A crisis throws you off balance. The trick is to embrace that and try to make it something more beautiful.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 11, 2021
‘You meet the woman from the artwork’
Michel van der Aa (51)
Profession: composer and director
Link to the metaverse: uses virtual reality as part of his art projects
“Because of the coronavirus, all my concerts were canceled and I lived in a crazy new reality. I saw all those well-intentioned initiatives by artists who in panic wanted to give themselves a ‘digital face’ and streamed their concerts to the living room. At the time I thought: there are opportunities here that are not being seized. I don’t want to watch a concert behind a computer screen, but rather use the internet to interact with my audience.
“For art, there are an incredible number of opportunities with the metaverse. You can give visitors a very personal, intense experience with a work of art or an artist. As an artist you can create something in this way in which the presence of the visitor influences what is played or said.
“In eight, from 2019, I went the furthest in that. This VR installation [virtual reality] portrays the life story of a woman; visitors can walk freely through a world with VR glasses for fifteen minutes. You can activate that world as a visitor, by pushing against walls or grabbing things. And you meet the woman from the artwork, at different times in her life.
“Eight has made me enthusiastic about VR and I also see new opportunities as a maker. How can you ensure that you are really somewhere else and can influence your environment? Think of the visitor who enters the foyer of the theater, puts on VR glasses and enters a room with someone who plays a part in the play you are about to see.
“The power of the metaverse is precisely that interaction. The idea that we are in a parallel world is becoming more and more important, our online alter egos more and more tangible. The new generation already lives like this. I have two sons, ages 12 and 13, and their portal to the world is games. I think that as an artist I should also be present in that world.”
Also read the review of Van der Aa’s most recent performance ‘Upload’
‘A tropical island, like Fortnite without shooting’
Taco Ekkel (45)
Business: Mibo (7 employees, half a million users)
Link to the metaverse: organizes company drinks in a 3D environment
“If you work remotely, there are plenty of good services for meeting online: Zoom, Teams, Google Meet. But there is no good program for meeting colleagues in a social setting, for a drink or for a party. Have you tried that through Teams? That’s not going anywhere.
“Mibo was created when corona broke out. We thought: wouldn’t it be great if we build an environment where you can walk around a bit, join groups and talk to each other, just like in real life? Mibo is a light-hearted medium: you walk on a kind of tropical island, with your head as the webcam. There is a pool table, a campfire where you can sit, a photo camera where you can take a picture with each other. There is a beach ball on the floor that you can throw at each other. A species Fortnite without shooting.
„We are mainly used by large tech companies [onder meer Microsoft, Netflix en LinkedIn zijn klant] and smaller start-ups for whom working remotely is normal. Many companies have a social ritual every week: a way to take a break from talking about work with colleagues. If your offices are spread all over the world or your employees work everywhere, how are you going to organize a company drink? We offer a solution for that.
“The metaverse is often associated with virtual reality, but we want absolutely nothing to do with VR. If something isn’t social, it’s like a pair of glasses on your head: you can’t see each other. You do need a webcam for that. There will undoubtedly be a solution for this in the future. Maybe in time we can make a full 3D reproduction of you in a virtual environment. Such developments always take longer than you think, another five or ten years. But once it’s there, the impact is huge.”
‘Flying in a zero-gravity environment’
Rutger Zuidam (38)
Business: Odyssey (15 employees, several thousand users)
Link to the metaverse: builds software that facilitates collaboration between people in their own online 3D environments
“The rise of the metaverse can be compared to the rise of social media. It’s the next stage of the web. The internet as we know it is based on pages, but the internet we are about to get to know is about places where you come together and meet others. You really don’t have to read a book in the metaverse, but as soon as you do activities together, this world does become interesting.
„We facilitate 3D environments – for educational institutions, ministries to museums and large companies [onder meer Sapp en Vattenfall] – where activities take place where cooperation is central. Think of conferences, festivals or projects, where employees or students come together and collaborate. I was inspired by games like EVE Online, where thousands of people work together in very complex structures.
“To help promote cooperation, we can go all out by letting go of all the laws of nature. It’s more fun flying around in a new zero-gravity environment than just walking around in a digital replica of your office. In the game world they have known for a long time that this is how it works, but you can see that these environments are now going to transcend the game world.
“No, you don’t have to do that with VR glasses. Have you ever had such a thing on? After an hour it gets pretty tiring. That’s more of a perk for activities that really benefit from having participants completely shut down. Looking around and talking is fine on a laptop.
“We would never have done this without Covid. We organized hackathons: 2,000 people who come together in a large factory hall and try to build something at a rapid pace. Our events could no longer take place physically, so we made something ourselves to be able to do our hackathons digitally. A crisis throws you off balance. The trick is to embrace that and try to make it something more beautiful.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 11, 2021