Embodiment in 3D virtual retail environments: Evolving the perceptions of collaborative art and design research as avatars

Being a fashion design lecturer and a fashion retail marketing lecturer, we were, until recently
working on the same courses, in the same open plan office. Academically we had also been
distinctly, yet independently aware of the debate surrounding the hyper un-realistic and
non-sensory interface of online 2D shopping for clothes spanning the last decade. Until the
advent of Web 2.0 interactivity, the customer’s inability to actualise, and communicate with
both the product and the brand had been the main inhibitor to online shopping.
Following a paper presented to the subject area research forum about 3D fashion design
research in Second Life. The authors met and chatted for the first time over coffee. We
discussed the cultural and digital convergence happening within design and retail business.
We acknowledged that in our polarised module delivery of design/retail content on the
supply chain, we were missing out on the opportunity of teleporting into online 3D virtual
worlds to do new research as a team.
From this basis we agreed to create space and collaborate. By applying an experiential,
exploratory and real-time approach to research methods we began investigating Second
Life in collaboration. We aimed to explore main fashion brands with established virtual
3D stores, and intend that this research will support next stage collaborative teaching
integrating both design and retail marketing. In conclusion the paper provides a context
for collaboration amongst art and design academics. The research is an attempt to inspire
‘non virtual ’ lecturers into working together to translate the tacit qualities of the physical
into virtual design, making, buying and merchandising experiences for increasingly virtually
tech- confident undergraduate art and design learners in 2008/09 and beyond.