Synchronization and dispersion, grave interruption and seamless play. Technology and geopolitics swing back and forth between what used to be polar opposites and are now striking and coincidental features of everyday life. The pandemic work culture accelerates the integration of everything from web apps to multiplayer games, but this thickening layer of persistent simulation floats above increasingly deglobalized maps and militarized cities.
Checkpoint democracy used to be way more retro. As the space between us expands physically and contracts digitally, we begin to experience the twin consciousness long predicted by literary dystopia, surrounded by light and yet unable to move.
Like a collective phantom limb: the metaverse offers both painful memory and comforting solace. An invisible companion that aches and dreams.