The Metaverse Culture Series kicks off with Black History Month.
This week Meta debuted their Metaverse Culture Series, a first-ever VR series focused on creating an intersection between the future of technology and embracing culture and heritage for historically excluded communities.
As the metaverse continues to grow, so does the idea of digital twinning. It’s not just about your own digital twin through your avatar or a business establishing themselves in the metaverse; a digital twin can be a social movement, a mission, or a way to ensure your culture and heritage are represented in the digital realm.
The Metaverse Culture Series kicks off with Black History Month and includes an incredible lineup of Black thought leaders from around the world, all coming together to build, collaborate, and explore ways the metaverse can be used to create important dialog within communities to ensure that people feel represented in the metaverse.
For their first step, Meta turned to artist and VR creator Gabe Gault to envision a unique VR experience through his perspective, and then take that idea and build it inside Horizon Worlds, Meta’s VR metaverse. For Gault, it was about his interpretation of Afrofuturism; what that meant to him, and how to convey that message in the metaverse in a way that would inspire exploration and conversation. What he created was a culturally rich interpretation of the Black history movement.
Titled “I Am a Man”, Gault pays homage to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, “I Am a Man” activists and the Tuskegee Airmen. In a trailer for Gault’s world, Gault says, “I want you to experience that moment of Black history, that you see it in books, you hear about it, you see old footage. But this is an opportunity for you to truly interact with it.”
Gault’s “I Am a Man” experience is currently available in Horizon Worlds and you can explore it now through the end of Black History Month. You can watch the trailer for the experience here.
Along with working with Gault, Meta also collaborated with an exclusive group of Black creators and active voices who were already involved in Horizon Workrooms. The company asked them to bring in their own perspective of Black culture and creativity into the overall mission of finding that intersection of culture and the future of tech. Contributors include:
- Jay Ellis, Actor & Producer
- Paris McCoy, Director of Photography, Producer & Immersive Technologist
- Rashaad Lambert, ESVP Forbes & Founder, Forbes The Culture
- Philip Lewis, Senior Front Page Editor, HuffPost
- Ime Archibong, Head of New Product Experimentation, Meta
- Vivian Ewalefo Johnson, Head of Cultural Moments & Product Equity Communications, Meta
- Danielle Young, Journalist & We the Culture Creator (Moderator)
According to Meta, this is just the beginning of the Metaverse Culture Series. The company recognizes that in order for the metaverse to be successful, it needs to be a place where you can go to connect with friends and family. More importantly, however, it needs to be a place where you feel represented.
That is the true definition of virtual presence.
Next month, Meta will connect with women who are leading the way in VR in honor of International Womens’ Day. Following that the company will be working on content for Ramadan, Earth Day, Pride Day just to name a few.
You can learn more about the Metaverse Culture Series by clicking here.
Image Credit: Meta
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