*Editor’s note: K-VIBE invites experts from various K-culture sectors to share their extraordinary discovery about the Korean culture. 

Chapter 1. The Past

Characteristics of Virtual Spaces in History

 

By Noh Seok-joon (Master K-architect engineer)

 

 

Throughout human history, every nation and society has needed a virtual narrative of "utopia" to justify their ideologies and systems. These ideals have been materialized in various forms and attempts through rules, laws, cities, and architecture, each reflecting their own vision of a perfect world.

 

Depending on the era, values, and prevailing societal institutions, the visions of these ideal worlds varied. However, all these visions began as virtual spaces before being realized in reality. Regardless of what is dreamt or hoped for, everything is initially conceived and designed in the imaginary world of virtual spaces.

 

Features of Virtual Spaces and Their Unique Utopias: 

Virtual Spaces in the Christian Worldview

 

From a Christian perspective, the scale of virtual space is the largest among the various virtual spaces mentioned. As seen in Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" and Andrea Pozzo's "The Triumph of St. Ignatius," the Christian depiction of heaven and hell is not a human-made specific space but the entire vast universe. Hence, the space is infinite and immeasurable.

 

The materials constituting heaven include clouds, air, and wind, while hell is made up of earth, fire, rock, and water—all elements of nature. The virtual entities in these spaces include all of humanity, encompassing every gender, age, and race. Humans are judged after death, and based on the judgment, they either go to heaven or hell, where they receive appropriate punishments or blessings according to the virtual space's program.

 

Virtual Spaces in Utopian Socialism

 

The virtual spaces depicted in Thomas More's "Utopia" and by French utopian socialists, like the communal community proposed by Charles Fourier, known as the Phalanstère, are described using architectural language. The scale of these spaces is at the level of public facilities and communal residential buildings, essentially the scale of architecture. Though the Phalanstère could expand into a city with multiple structures, its scale remains significantly smaller compared to the Christian concept of heaven and hell and is more within the realm of human activity.

 

Fourier's Phalanstère was envisioned to be constructed with materials commonly used at the time, such as bricks, stones, and glass, and in the prevalent architectural style of French classicism. The space was designed for communal living, with shared workspaces, production facilities, educational facilities, and recreational areas, although individual living quarters provided personal space within the community.

 

In this virtual space, the entities were primarily Europeans, specifically those struggling in impoverished conditions under absolute monarchy. This utopian vision was less about emphasizing any particular ideology or political system and more about liberation from oppression by wealth and power, striving for a self-directed life with stability and harmony within the community.

 

The Virtual Space of Communism

 

The concept of utopia, which began with Thomas More, was inherited by the successors of European utopian socialism, and was ultimately perfected into the concept of communism. This evolution culminated in the establishment of communist states following the Russian Revolution. While the virtual spaces of utopian socialism could be conceptualized at the scale of architecture and cities, the virtual spaces of communist states expanded to encompass entire nations composed of such cities.

 

Moreover, the concepts advocated by communists began to focus more on narratives involving the state, the people, and the economic and social systems, rather than specific spatial devices. Thus, the scope of their ideas expanded in national, ethnic, historical, and civilizational dimensions. The virtual world they aimed to realize was a more expansive ideal concept rather than a specific physical space. Of course, when it came to building a state, they addressed concrete architectural scales at the levels of nation, city, and architecture, eventually constructing their utopian virtual space in reality.

 

As the virtual space of communism expanded to a national scale, the participants in this space became the entire population of a country. Furthermore, since they aimed to extend their communist ideology and economic and social systems worldwide, the participants had the potential to encompass all of humanity.

 

To build a communist state, communists constructed revolutionary squares and numerous symbolic monuments at the urban scale. Symbolic towers, statues, and large sculptures served as perfect virtual presences to propagate their ideology. At this time, communists sought to create a new social style by mixing European traditional styles with Eastern styles, and also proposed Russian Constructivism¹⁾.

 

Communism dealt with a much larger scale of virtual space than French utopian socialism, addressing the oppressed lower classes around the world as central virtual participants. This virtuality-based social, political, and economic system continues to exert significant influence in the international community today.

 

 

 

*1) Constructivism: An avant-garde art movement that prevailed in Russia in the 1920s. It is characterized by geometric and abstract forms, pursuing industrial materials and practicality, and expressing the socialist ideology that art should contribute to society.

 

 

 

 

 

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