Magpie Online

Abstract

Magpie Online is a new media installation that explores the migration from material public spaces to online environments, focusing on the multiplayer platform Decentraland. Much like “real” life, users create avatars and construct homes, parks, clubs, and other urban infrastructures. One user likens Decentraland to a magpie’s nest—an externalized archive of selfhood, where each digital object becomes a reflection of identity. The installation weaves together interviews with four Decentraland users, platform footage, original animation, machinima, and archival imagery tracing the evolution of North American public space. Drawing from urban analysis, Magpie Online explores how virtual worldbuilding reshapes our sense of belonging, embodiment, and community. How is identity forged in digital realities? What do we gain—and lose—when our social lives are mediated online? And, to what extent should we distinguish between “real” and “virtual” life? Magpie Online invites viewers to consider what it means to be part of a world increasingly built on-screen.