Red-Eye Is a New Metaverse-Born Magazine
MILAN — If there’s space for real estate, fashion, music, art and more in the metaverse, there might be space for journalism, too.
With that in mind, Gloria Maria Cappelletti, a Milan-based art and fashion curator and a champion of digital art, is launching Red-Eye, a magazine poised to live inside and outside the metaverse.
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“I’ve experienced firsthand the historic transition from analogue to digital media, which changed the fashion aesthetics for good…and then the introduction of moving images…which also affected fashion storytelling,” Cappelletti told WWD. “Now we’re facing another crucial transition…and it was time for me to take a risk,” she added.
Debuting Thursday with a website and accompanying metaverse space on Spatial.io, Red-Eye borrows not only most of its topics from the Web3 revolution, but also the intrinsic democratic approach of those platforms.
“I want the project to be participatory, which is the baseline of the whole metaverse experience,” Cappelletti said.
She explained that compared to fashion favorites Roblox and Decentraland, Spatial offered a visually captivating experience, less game-y with high-definition Ready Player Me avatars, and is accessible without a digital wallet, seen by the Red-Eye’s creative director as a usability bonus.
The metaverse component will be accessible via computer, mobile and enhanced via Oculus VR devices.
Red-Eye’s website is populated by articles without a timeline-based river, to give each story the same importance, while the magazine’s environment on Spatial will house different rooms, each dedicated to and enhancing the corresponding feature, article or project.
Although the flexibility of such a project can hardly be described using vocabulary of traditional media, Cappelletti said she aims for quarterly installments.
The first issue features conversations with Cathy Hackl, a Web3 expert and authority often referred to as the godmother of the metaverse, who will present her new book and a collection of NFTs inside Spatial; an interview with BtMedlr, a Web3 artist unveiling the AI-based “Dune: Not for Spice” exhibition inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky within Red-Eye’s metaverse space, and a partnership with Afro Fashion, the Italian association supporting African talents since 2015, to spotlight the “Tracing Identities Through Fashion Photography” exhibition featuring portraits by photography students from Italy and Cameroon.
The Web2 magazine will also contain an interview with Tommy Hilfiger, among the earliest and most prolific adopters of the metaverse, especially Roblox.
“It’s a mix of contents drawing a younger audience because they know the environment, but also one that could court and engage adults, it’s a blend of different worlds,” Cappelletti said.
Red-Eye is launching in partnership with Gianluca Reina, who has several gigs under his belt, including as a co-founder and publisher of Cabana magazine, cofounder and partner at digital agency Ready2Fly and events agency Fasten Seatbelt, among others.
Although she won’t reveal names of current advertisers, Cappelletti did notice that time spent on metaverses is longer than other media, she said, which could turn Red-Eye into an asset for brands eager to make their media spend worth it.