Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

ecognition. On the other hand, he also mentions the challenge of conflicting egos, especially in
collaborative design projects. For Curiza, it is important “from the start on [to] find out who’s the
best for this build.”
For AmyLee and Xavier, current design of PAL contains elements about which they both feel
partial. However, both co-designers try to anticipate each other’s’ perspectives and leave the
specific design decisions to the actual designer of the particular places within PAL. AmyLee
mentions that when she sees another person building, she usually thinks “I would not have
thought doing it that way, but it’s cool.” Xavier believes he and AmyLee had “two approaches” to
the overall form, and he was more focused on “emphasizing the landscape.” However for AmyLee,
providing walkways for easy access was a more important consideration. Xavier also mentions the
importance of “respect” to someone else’s ideas in collaboration. Respecting other designers’
efforts and collaborating on separate design tasks generally affects the ways in which
the
co-designers work together, divide the tasks, and develop design concepts. The co-designers
usually do not change the design of an element without consulting the others, as permanence of
their contributions depend on how such changes are applied. Xavier’s and Shaggy’s comments
often refer to the risks of improper organization of collaborative practices, where too many voices
cause chaos and instability in co-production of designs. Both Xavier and Curiza describes the
unorganized design processes –where everybody is able to build and change others’ builds – as
“anarchistic” experiences, which had to be changed due to growing problems in their group. This
was especially a problem during the earlier stages of PAL’s design, when a member of the original
team was expelled because of these personal conflicts between the co-designers. According to
Curiza, the girl was “kicked out” because of a stylistic conflict based on “replicating RL
architecture.”
For the current project, Curiza decided to make AmyLee responsible for the final calls, and treat
her decisions with respect. In his comment below, Curiza describes why he chose AmyLee to lead
the project, and how he reacted to some people’s critiques on his selection of AmyLee instead of
Xavier, who is a professional architect in RL and an advanced builder in SL. For Curiza, his
previous ‘anarchistic’ method did not work any longer, as too many voices from too many creative
minds would eventually lead to ‘ego conflicts’. On the other hand, he also mentions how giving
designers “total freedom” can result in successful “magic builds.”
Curiza: Builders, they really have huge egos about their stuff. And really, you could compare it
to being in a music band where you also have a bass, and a guitar and a drummer and a singer.
And you have to be able to create the magic; you have to be able to let everyone play.
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