Mark Zuckerberg wants to become your emperor. The marks are already ripping through him. And the art market thrives on this new terrain. What is the metaverse, and how could it transform our lives?

The future never looked so close. Despite those who still regard virtual worlds as science fiction, we may soon be able to leave dry land behind and explore the digital limits of the metaverse, those worlds within the world, potentially limitless and accessible through virtual reality headsets. A network of territories hosted on the internet, where the video game Second Life was one of the pioneers, in which each one evolves in the form of an avatar and one can now market, buy clothes or attend concerts. Last year, Travis Scott's, on the Fortnite gaming platform, brought together 12 million virtual viewers, connected in the four corners of the globe.

The art market is already in. As digital works multiplied, which exists only on screens and are marketed in the form of NFT (numerical certificates of authenticity and ownership), the Sotheby's auction house quickly understood its lucrative potential. In October, she launched her platform Sotheby's Metaverse, where she organizes auction sales of virtual works. At the moment, the most profitable are called Cryptopunks, pixeled miniatures of fictitious faces, whose prices reach up to 500 thousand dollars. "It's a new way of looking at art, with an entirely new market where 90% of collectors aren't yet familiar", says Michael Bouhanna, who co-directs Sothoby's digital business. It is even through Twitter that he gets in touch with young artists and collectors, who exhibit in the metaverse as they would in an art gallery. "Before NFT's, digital art was consumed in immersive installations that rarely crossed the market barrier", he continues. "Today, artists can sell their works much more effectively." The auction house has even reproduced its mythical London headquarters in the Decentraland metaverse, where you can visit its galleries, its NFT exhibitions and follow the sales live. Things that havea turned the heads of traditional buyers, who now share the ground with young gamers, whose purchasing power is counted in cryptocurrencies.
First described in 1992 by American writer Neil Stephenson in his dystopian novel The Virtual Samurai, the concept of the metaverse has taken hold since Mark Zuckerberg, eager to restore the image of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, renamed his parent company Meta and announced an investment of 10 billion dollars in the development of its own virtual universe. The company unity Software, in turn, bought Weta Digital, the special effects studio of director Peter Jackson, whose technologies used in Avatar and The Lord of the Rings should help it develop its own metaverse.

Because fantasy cinema, Silicon Vallet executes. The return of the Matrix and its cyberspace, created by the machines to enslave humans, has never seemed so current. In Player Number 1, adapted from the Ernest Cline's novel, Steven Spielberg brings to life the OASIS, a virtual reality video game in which characters embark on a massive treasure hunt. Once the real world is in ruins, the characters fight to reign in the metaverse. "What's fascinating about these films is that they show the ability of human beings to imagine the next stages of development and technology before we even have the tools to use them", highlights Miriam Ross, PhD and lecturer in cinema and virtual reality at Victoria University of Wellington. "They embody both our dreams and our fears that the technologies of the near future could transform our lives. And they have a lot to say about our current state of mind. For her, virtual relity also offers the possibility to delve a little deeper into the fictonal universe of cinema, where the viewer coud eventually interact with the elements and characters of a film, or even have an impact of its story. Waiting for this, apprentice directors passionate about games are already producing films within the metaverse itself, such as the British Joe Hunter, with his short films that present the avatars on the VR Chat platform. That's what the digital world is all about: escaping the real world to more inviting realities, where everyone can become the best version of themselves.

And becoming someone in the golden age of social media is, above all, projecting a convincing image. In Meta's introductory video, we see Mark Zuckerberg's avatar choosing virtual outfits, from jeans and the t-shirt to an astronaut outfit. Don't worry, we won't be forced to dress like a tech-bro in the metaverse, fashion has already taken a few steps forward. In the future, each brand will be able to have its digital line - that's what Natalia Modenova and Daria Shapovalova claim. They launched the digital clothing sales platform DRESSX, which offers both classic pieces and high-end sci-fi attire, which can be purchased in the form of NFT. Daria recalls that, in some countries like the United Kingdom, about one in ten people only buy an outfit to post it on social media, before returning it (Baraclayard survey). "These pieces don't need to be produced, they can only exist in the digital space. At the same time, both see this as the furute of content creating, a way to reduce fashion's carbon footprint by decreasing its physical production and making The platform recently allowed, for example, its members to virtually try on a Balenciaga signature haute couture dress, which only a select few customers could afford in the real world.

Since then, the brand has multiplied its meta-reflections on the accessibility of fashion: in its latest presentation, the arrival of guests on the red carpet at theTh&eacute;&acirc;tre du Ch&acirc;telet, broadcast live inside the room, was in fact the show itself, where the creations by Denma Gvasalia, the brand's artistic director, stood shoulder to shoulder with the celebrity outfits. A specially crafter episode of The Simpsons was later screened, in which Homer, Marge and the others fly to Paris and step onto the brand's catwalk. A sow within a show, a powerful allegory illustrating the way fictional worlds can democratize fashion. "The semantics of fashion have changed, the industry must followe it!", says Leanne Elliott Young, co-founder of the Institute of Digital Fashion in London, which opened in 2020. From 3D creation to augmented reality sales. Its manifesto calls for the transformation of a "system that no longer works" to an inclusive industry, in which everyone will have their opportunities to triumph and express their views. "We advocate the democratization of the digital space, which Mark Zuckerberg is already trying to colonize." For her, a privilaged technological billionaire should not be allowed to establish in dominion over the metaverse, it must remain a decrentralized space over which no one govers. "It's a very exciting opportunitiy for both individuals and the creative industries to move beyond the current infrastruction where internet updates the old dream of digital democracy, in which everyone has their place and each voice its echo. Or, as Wade Watts, the young hero of Player Number q, puts it: "People come to the OASIS for all the things they can do here, but they stay because of all the things they can become."

Metaverse: What is it and How can it Influence our Life?

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