Gathertown

2020-2021


In 2020-2021, not many COVID lockdown-appropriate options were available to fill that void of spontaneous ad-hoc conversations with acquaintances at a party, in the hallways of a communal building, on the streets, etc. Then a friend introduced me to the platform gather.town, which allows you to control an avatar, walk it around a space, and have a video call pop up when you get close to a person or enter a designated private conversation space. I knew right away this would be the perfect medium to use for many applications. I illustrated and designed a variety of spaces to host a variety of programming in, from intimate birthday parties, to structured speed-friending and games nights, to virtual exhibitions, to classes, to office hours, to a convocation celebration for 150+ students.


The base graphics and layouts offered by gather.town were rather limited at its inception, so I took to illustrating my own, mostly using my iPad. Very little coding was involved, but the spaces required basic “programming” using gathertown’s interface to make interactive objects that link to embedded whiteboards, videos, games, shared google documents, etc.
I was part of Sketch Working Arts’ pilot program called Next Up! Leaders Lab ( professional development training focused on mentorship and education and networking) as a participant. This was the kind of program that would typically rely heavily on co-learning and organic human interactions that occur between the amazing people in the room, so in an attempt to recreate that kind of environment, I facilitated a “beach party”.
Instructions in static PDF form for using Gather.town to help those who are less technologically experienced and wouldn’t be able to understand the built-in interactive instructions within the site. 
I designed, illustrated, laid out, and “programmed” a speed-friending exercise among other activities. It was the first time many of us were able to have one-on-one or smaller group intimate conversations, and was incredibly valuable.
In a “room” full of many people, you can emulate “breakout” conversations in a more comfortable fashion than Zoom breakout rooms, because you’re able to see “where” the other participants, who aren’t in your conversation, are up to. This reduces the fear of missing out or anxiety or discomfort caused by being in isolated breakout rooms. having something to do asides from just starting at the camera, namely “moving” your avatar around and exploring the space (including interactive objects and whimsical illustrations) also helps put folks at ease and in a playful social mindset.
At my workplace, students would be graduating and not have any ability to socialize with each other - the convocation ceremony offered by the school was to be a video presentation, because allowing hundreds of students to mingle in a socially distanced way is unmanageable. I had built a virtual recreation of our Faculty’s buildings for students to take classes in and hang out in (in an attempt to help recreate some of the spontaneity and charm of studio culture that is so central to architecture school). So for convocation, I added some additional convocation-themed flourishes and an after-party was held there.
Music DJ’ed by students played in every room, photo booths, yearbooks, and more, adorned the “hallways” of the virtual building. Hundreds of attendees, mostly graduates but also younger students, joined in the successful celebration.
I also used gather.town heavily for personal gatherings like birthday parties or large group games nights.
It was also used as a platform for showcases and exhibitions of work - visitors would be able to walk through a space, see pieces laid out and curated spatially, then click into various interactive objects to look through.