Why do people hate mirror dwellers?
Emergent Digital Media Class

Dwelling (v.) is living in a specific place. In technics, dwelling is the regularity of pausing slightly within mechanical motion. This year’s contribution of the Emergent Digital Media class to the annual AdBK Munich exhibition refers to ‘mirror dwellers’, a term used in virtual online subcultures.

An upshot of virtual reality (VR) platforms such as VRChat; virtual mirrors are reflective surfaces which allow users to survey a mirrored reflection of their avatar, alongside other users in parallel. They also reflect the avatars’ world space, providing a contextualization for their animated VR body. VR worlds contain mirrors intended for survey and socialization. Meanwhile, online-forums like Reddit got crowded with heated discussions about mirror dwellers – avatars who endlessly watch their animated mirror reflections. 

The exhibition setup proposes a recursive situation – the glass displays are constructed in a way that places observers in a position of dwelling to the artworks.

The mirror dwellers’ stillness disrupts a logic where everything must be useful, efficient, and fast. Mirror dwellers let time pass without purpose or output, and that makes them suspicious. In a culture obsessed with momentum, simply not keeping up is enough to be in the way.

The commonly developed exhibition consists of media installations, screens and sculptures that refer to real, to virtual, and to data worlds.