3x4 - Exploring metaspace platforms for inclusive future cities

In Indian megacities such as Delhi and Mumbai, more than 50% of the population lives in informal settlements. 3x4 metres is the plot size provided in some resettlement colonies, a government initiative which relocates people within informal inner-city settlements to vacant land on the periphery. 3x4 looks at informal settlements differently where informality is not viewed as a problem, but a promising new model of urbanism.

3x4 creates an immersive, telematic environment by merging two identical 3x4 metre room installations at Khoj International Artists' Association, Delhi and Southbank Centre, London, to provide a playful, sensorial exploration of new hybrids of digital space. Audiences in Delhi, London and across the globe can co-create these mixed-reality scenes via http://www.3x4m.org/, and explore the qualities and values built through self-organised communities that are lost in the resettlement process. This transnational dialogue intends to set an aspiration for developing metaspace platforms in the global south.

Public audiences in Delhi and London will be able to experience the shared living space between the 12th and 14th December 2014. The installation will be connected 6 hours a day from: 10.00am to 4.00pm GMT in London at Festival Village, Southbank Centre and 3.30pm to 9.30pm IST in Delhi at Khoj International Artists' Association, combining two cities not just spatially, but temporally. 

3x4 is a collaboration between Professor Paul Sermon at the University of Brighton, Dr Claire McAndrew at The Bartlett, UCL Faculty of the Built Environment, Swati Janu a Delhi based Architect and Vivek Muthuramalingam, a Bangalore based photographer. 

The project is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of a broader collaboration between The UnBox Festival, British Council and Science & Innovation Network. Find out more on their Facebook Event page.