AltSpaceVR closed it’s doors for the second time on March 10th, 2023 at 10:08pm, and Athena Demos was there to bear witness to it all until the very last moments. She shared an eulogy again that she had first shared during The Polys livestream, and I had her read through what she had said. I had a chance to catch up with Demos to hear about her journey into social VR through the Burning Man community and helping to produce and translate the 2015 scan of Black Rock City into a virtual Burning Man during that pandemic in 2020 that I unpacked with developer Greg Edwards and Demos in 2020. She went on to found Big Rock Creative XR and produce a number of different virtual events with AltSpaceVR throughout the pandemic.

She’s working on producing an AltSpaceVR social VR alternative tentatively titled BCRvr Immersive that features the scan of Burning Man with a series of different stereoscopic footage vignettes to give you an immersive documentary vibe of the Burning Man experience. She shares both her grief of loosing her digital home and community within the the context of AltSpaceVR as well as her gratitude for Microsoft for providing this free service so long. It’s still a bit of a mystery even to AltSpaceVR’s staunchest community members as to the exact reason why Microsoft decided to pull the plug on AltSpace, and she shares inside scoops for how she first heard about the news. Demos is at cutting edge of developing new grief rituals and social VR community organizing dynamics as she continues to produce virtual events and experiences as she shares her surprising journey into VR in this emotionally authentic debriefing interview that we were able to have at the end of day on Monday, March 10, 2023.