A panel including Liam Young, Refik Anadol and Space Popular expressed both optimism and trepidation about the rise of the metaverse in a talk hosted by Dezeen in collaboration with NeueHouse during Frieze Los Angeles.

Speaking about the phenomenal growth of interest in the metaverse on a panel organised by Dezeen as part of NeueHouse Hollywood's programming during Frieze Los Angeles, Young described how the potential that digital spaces hold for creative expression is matched by the threat posed by privatisation and surveillance.

"There's real opportunity and excitement there, but there's also incredible danger," said Young, a speculative architect and co-founder of urban futures think tank Tomorrows Thoughts Today and research studio Unknown Fields Division.
Describing the way in which media narratives on the topic of the metaverse focus on its "luxury aisles" rather than the reality of digital labour, content moderation and data processing that goes into building digital spaces, Young expressed ambivalence on the subject.

"The metaverse is not necessarily going to be a late capitalist Zuckerbergain fever dream," he explained. "At the same time, it is neither going to be an escapist utopian fantasy or a flat world without the systemic horrors of the real."

"In a way, it'll be both of these things, because no technology has ever really been a solution to anything - it really just exaggerates the conditions that exist. So th...