Meet the Team: Babybonito
An Introduction to the Members of Glitches.VR
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hello! My name is Babybonito, but you can just call me Bonito. I’m an artist playing and creating in VRChat with an amazing community of virtual explorers.
When and how did you get into social VR?
There was this video by a YouTuber named Syrmor, where he was interviewing a kid in VRChat who wore a Kermit the Frog avatar. I think I saw it in 2018? I couldn’t get it out of my head. They were able to have this complex and vulnerable conversation in such an absurd setting; it felt kind of free to me. It wasn’t until the pandemic started and I was studying for my master’s that I invested in a VR headset. I had already decided to research avatar design and embodiment before I had even tried out VR!
What interests you most about social VR?
I think it’s the creative autonomy I have, especially on a platform like VRChat. As a 3D artist, I can make worlds to bring people into and bodies to interact inside of. VR solo experiences can be really powerful, but I think the social element is where virtual reality’s real potential lies. When I try on a new avatar or hop to a new world in a social space, it calls into question what parts of me are flexible or fluid and what parts stay the same. When a large group of friends join me in a world I created, I see their delight, confusion or horror in real time and those reactions impact how I feel about my work. It can be an incredibly powerful tool for personal growth and facilitating play as an adult.
What is your go-to way of expressing your creativity?
Oh my goodness, what a tough question. It has changed a lot since I’ve started using social VR regularly — my creative process is a lot more collective now. But one thing that hasn’t changed for me is writing comics. When I've experienced something or have a feeling that is hard to put into words, I tend to make a comic about it, even if it's only a few panels!
“It’s not always easy — a lot of times we have to have serious conversations where we disagree or struggle to communicate — but we try our best!”
Who or what inspires you?
You do, Thawah!!! Like, literally, meeting you guys and just seeing how we bounce energy off of each other inspires me. It’s not always easy — a lot of times we have to have serious conversations where we disagree or struggle to communicate — but we try our best! The effort you’ve all put into making the spaces you frequent safer, kinder and more colorful means more to me than you’ll ever know.
What is the origin of your username?
Well, first of all, I’m a bonito, as in the fish flakes! Despite being half Portuguese, I had no idea it meant beautiful — shame on me. So, it’s a little awkward that “beautiful baby” is a lot of people’s interpretation. I added the “baby” in front because I liked the way it sounded and it was available on almost every platform.
How do you feel about the future of VR?
I’m really nervous about it! Hahaha. On the one hand, I get so much out of it — friendships, creativity, play, novelty, adventure. I want everyone to have access to that, but it feels so unsustainable. The platform we use now is great because it's still fairly small. There is a lot of creative freedom and it’s not really for anything, it's exploratory. When companies need to make money, scale up, monopolize, what happens to our creative freedom? What happens to our fluidity, chaos and subversion? I also worry about the labor, electricity and environmental costs of making this technology widely available. My dream is for social VR to be accessible to anyone who wants it, built by people who are well compensated, and powered in a clean and equitable way. A lot has to change for that to be in our future.
Checkout more of Bonito’s work HERE.