FLOATSPACE | Aria Anastasiou

MA Thesis project at the MA Interdisciplinary Design program of Frederick University Cyprus.

I explored the notion of curating in Virtual Space as a tactic to redefine abandoned industrial spaces. The outcome is a map-website where abandoned industrial buildings within the city are noted. Each building comes with its own VR application, where the user can access the building and immerse into a new kind of cultural experience.

APP Programming, Web Design, Interaction Design, Branding, Exhibition Design and Space Development is done by me, with the mostly appreciated help from a professional programmer and a graphic designer.

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Coming from the idea of multiple worlds existing together on different dimensions and being accessible through 'portals,' FLOATSPACE describes a world that, as the name suggests, floats at about one's eye level.

On one hand, FLOATSPACE refers to the online platform that functions as an archive for abandoned modernist industrial buildings in Nicosia, Cyprus; on the other hand, these spaces are accessible through their dedicated virtual reality applications. With a twist: in their new dimensions, they are not abandoned, nor do they serve their original function. Rather, they get a new mission to provide an immersive cultural experience. And this is just one of the many, or better yet infinite, possibilities.

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EXCERPT FROM THE PROJECT'S WEBSITE [NOT ACTIVE AT THE MOMENT]

Inspired by the technological advancements of our era, FLOATSPACE is a project that takes advantage the concepts of virtual reality serving its users a new kind of cultural experience.

Borrowing the environments of remarkable abandoned spaces within the city of Nicosia and transforming them into spaces of cultural production, it is now possible for two or more worlds to coexist.

Immersing into these new worlds, whether from the comfort of one's home or at an event on the actual location of the space in question, one thing is absolutely certain: another world/space always floats at about one's eye level.

— HOW IT WORKS

The basic concept of FLOATSPACE project is that each space while being part of a bigger group, it functions autonomously within its dedicated mobile application. Each time a new event is on, the subscribers of FLOATSPACE will receive an email with the event details and order link, to get the exhibition kit. [VR Glasses (optional), event brochure, works catalog, and other promotional material related to the event].