Abstract
For some time we’ve been living in a world of intertwined digital media, and this world of screens has only been drawn into sharper focus during the recent global coronavirus pandemic. From work meetings to family get-togethers or even doctor visits, everything is a video call away, and these calls have become more sophisticated. Technologies such as Zoom have whetted our appetites for spatio-oriented image displays. People curate their appearance with virtual backgrounds, facial enhancements, and interactive elements which allow for interplay between presenter and environment. Over the past three years, a similar interplay has been enacted at human scale within the built environment in the form of a virtual film set called StageCraft. A partnership between Industrial Light and Magic and Epic Games, StageCraft combines their Unreal Engine with massive LED walls on a soundstage. This game engine—software that provides for simultaneous design iteration and inhabitation—renders photorealistic settings on these walls as background for practical set elements and the actors. As the technology becomes more affordable, StageCraft is likely to spread beyond moviemaking to smaller scale applications. What has become commonplace on Zoom will come to include the surfaces of our offices and homes. We foresee a rise in such hybrid, pseudo-virtual environments. This paper describes a digital reality model we call omnull space—a way of using responsive displays at home and work in the near future. In this we outline a clear trajectory of spatialized experiences that reveal a future of compelling augmented physical spaces.