Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

Although Shaggy’s perspective above focuses on semiotic appropriation of the real-world
affordances for design of the virtual place, Xavier’s architecturally-inspired assessment of Genius
Loci emphasizes the opposite dimension, namely the absence of the physical environment.
According to Xavier, the Genius Loci approach is “not possible in SL [b]ecause if you have a sim,
and it’s an island, you have nothing (…) to relate to.” Therefore the major question for Xavier
is”how to develop an idea without the Genius Loci way to approach” through which it is possible
to” develop other ways to approach architecture.”
In terms of the comparison between real and virtual worlds, Xavier’s comments are more
professionally-oriented, as he mentions how he thought “I can’t really use my knowledge about
architecture in SL, I have to start all over.” He emphasizes the lack of gravity, and the
disappearance of the need for building traditional architecture structures such as pillars, roofs or
walls. Concerning design in this new environment, Xavier asks a critical question: “why are you
building at all” if “traditional reason for building is not there.” According to him, this logic
shaped the aesthetics of PAL’s earlier visual design, and led him to build more abstract forms.
Characteristically, Xavier and Curiza’s comments on translations between SL and RL practices
clearly reflect their professional opinions and previous experiences. Xavier’s ideation of SL reflects
a space of possibilities. For Xavier, such translations are sometimes hard to get used to, as they
mean a mental overcoming of his prior education in architecture. Whereas certain environmental
factors that would affect RL designs (such as gravity and other physical constraints) are not
applicable in SL, therefore designers are not obliged to think in terms of RL constraints. Xavier’s
question refers to a blurring of semiotic frameworks, in which applicability and transduction of
codes derived from one realm begins conflicting with the context of situation of the virtual realm.
Selection of the style and genre characteristics for Metrotopia and workshop projects are based on
pre-determined visual characteristics of the superhero genre, some of which will be discussed in
the multimodal analysis in Chapter 8. For PAL, however, providing a specific type of experience
that is characteristic for virtual environments was in the project description from the very
beginning. For AmyLee , who describes the overall design of PAL as “SL-like”, the distinction
between conceptions of these two dimensions is clear, and effective in her design decisions: for her
“RL is RL, definitely (…) SL is just additional fun”, therefore her interest in SL is directed towards
doing “what (she) cannot do in RL.”
Organizing Collaborative Practices in Time and Space
In this section, I analyze how the co-designers move - either physically or via their avatars –
between the places and the digital platforms, and how they organize their collaborative practices
within different time-schedules. I have already mentioned how avatars move - walk, fly, teleport –
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