The concept of the metaverse has moved rapidly from speculative fiction to functional reality. Once associated only with fantastical tech dreams or cinematic representations like Ready Player One, the metaverse is now a living, breathing digital ecosystem where people connect, collaborate, and create. Thanks to pioneering efforts by Meta and other tech innovators, virtual reality is not only reshaping how we socialize and work—it's also redefining how we experience and create art.
Through platforms such as Horizon Workrooms and Horizon Worlds, Meta is building a vast, multi-layered reality that’s inviting creators from around the world to help shape what this space becomes. In this new universe, artists are no longer bound by canvas, screen, or physical dimension. They can build expansive environments, immersive exhibitions, and digital landscapes rooted in personal experience, identity, and vision.
One such creator pushing these boundaries is COVL, a dynamic multimedia artist who recently partnered with Meta to develop a groundbreaking immersive project titled Nuevo Norte. This project forms the heart of Meta’s fifth Metaverse Culture Series initiative, Tercera Cultura, celebrating Latinx heritage through virtual and augmented reality storytelling.
Reimagining Home Through the Metaverse: The Birth of Nuevo Norte
The metaverse is rapidly becoming more than a digital experiment—it’s evolving into a vast realm of self-expression, innovation, and community. Within this space, Nuevo Norte, an ambitious project developed by multimedia artist COVL in partnership with Meta, stands as a remarkable convergence of technology and cultural storytelling. This immersive experience is not merely about creating a virtual environment; it is a bold attempt to reconstruct heritage, memory, and identity in a multidimensional landscape.
Nuevo Norte, translating to “New North,” originates from a deeply personal place. Named after a street in Puerto Rico where COVL’s family once resided before emigrating to the United States, the title encapsulates the emotional gravity of migration, adaptation, and the resilience of cultural identity. It represents a conceptual north star—a symbolic direction toward reconnection and self-discovery through digital means.
In Nuevo Norte, memory is not confined to nostalgia; it is reborn through lush textures, vivid hues, and surrealist spatial design. It’s a living, breathing environment inside Horizon Worlds that allows users to explore, reflect, and interact with representations of Latinx heritage through an artistic lens. By utilizing Horizon's full potential, COVL constructs a world that is at once fantastical and grounded in emotional truth. The experience offers more than just visual stimuli—it engages the senses and invites users into a fluid dialogue between past, present, and future.
Floating Islands as Cultural Portals: Mapping the Virtual Topography
The core design of Nuevo Norte features four floating islands, each acting as a standalone experience while contributing to the overarching narrative of Latinx identity. These aren’t just themed areas—they are fully-realized spaces infused with rich symbolism and emotional depth.
The journey begins through a radiant portal, a glowing tunnel that envelops users in light and guides them into a dreamlike world suspended in digital skies. The floating islands are meticulously crafted, each holding personal meaning while serving as broader metaphors for shared cultural motifs. Movement from one island to another is not just a transition through space, but a passage through memory, tradition, and imaginative re-creation.
Each location within this world is a piece of COVL’s narrative puzzle, and together, they form a holistic cultural immersion that invites users to engage actively with the Latinx experience—not from an outside perspective, but from within.
La Islá: A Dual Tribute to Heritage and Belonging
La Islá serves as a loving homage to COVL’s Puerto Rican roots and Miami upbringing. As visitors step into this space, they are greeted by a landscape brimming with animated vegetation, towering tropical trees, and atmospheric skies that shift with movement. The entire environment feels alive, mirroring the organic flow of island life and the emotional warmth of home.
This island is more than just a geographic or aesthetic nod to Puerto Rico and South Florida—it represents the emotional duality experienced by many within the diaspora. It visualizes the push and pull between two places, two cultures, and two versions of self. In La Islá, the user is not just an observer but a participant in this ongoing cultural dance.
Interactive elements, such as flora that reacts to touch or skies that change with emotional tempo, reinforce the idea that identity is not static—it evolves with engagement and understanding. This virtual island becomes a manifestation of diasporic navigation: lush, vibrant, and ever-changing.
Cafecito: A Sensory Space for Memory and Intimacy
Few things carry the emotional weight of shared rituals, and Cafecito captures that with heartfelt precision. Designed to replicate the warm, quiet moments COVL once shared with her grandparents, this space fuses memory with sensory storytelling in a way that feels profoundly intimate.
Stepping into Cafecito is like stepping into a memory gently preserved in time. The clink of ceramic cups, the scent of fresh coffee and pan de mantequilla, and the soft echoes of old stories form the backdrop of this contemplative experience. Digital elements replicate physical sensations—steam rises, colors soften, and ambient sounds create a layered soundscape that immerses the user in familial nostalgia.
Unlike more visual-centric islands, Cafecito is rooted in atmosphere and emotional resonance. It prompts users to think about their own inherited rituals and moments of connection. It's a quiet space, but emotionally potent—designed not to impress, but to console and affirm.
Cuéntamelo: Storytelling as Cultural Preservation
At the heart of Nuevo Norte lies Cuéntamelo, which translates to “Tell Me.” This tranquil island acts as the emotional and narrative anchor of the experience. In a world often dominated by aesthetics and visual speed, Cuéntamelo invites users to slow down and engage in collective storytelling.
Here, visitors can listen to ambient recordings, engage in shared dialogue, and contribute their own thoughts through voice or written prompts. Unlike traditional digital spaces that encourage passive consumption, Cuéntamelo promotes reflective interaction. It's a space of empathy, built to affirm the shared human need to be heard, seen, and remembered.
The design of this island is minimalist but emotionally charged. Open-air structures, quiet corners, and soft lighting make it an ideal environment for introspection. As users listen to others’ stories or offer their own, they participate in a living archive of Latinx memory—one that spans generations and transcends borders.
Discoteca: Celebration, Movement, and Rhythmic Liberation
In sharp and joyous contrast to the meditative calm of Cuéntamelo, Discoteca bursts forth with electric energy. This island pays tribute to the vibrant nightlife of Miami, where rhythm, music, and collective joy form a critical part of Latinx identity and expression.
Discoteca is a multi-level dancefloor drenched in vivid color, rotating galaxies, and floating manatees—an eclectic blend of whimsy and reverence. Music pulses through the virtual air: salsa, reggaetón, and electronic Latin beats merge to create a rhythmic symphony that invites users to move freely and joyously.
The design elements are deliberate and symbolic. Floating creatures evoke ancestral spirits, dance becomes ritual, and neon light mirrors the cultural resilience found in celebration. Here, joy is not a distraction—it is resistance. This space validates the emotional spectrum of Latinx identity: not just struggle, but pleasure, pride, and unity.
Cultural Identity in the Digital Sphere: A New Visual Language
What COVL achieves through Nuevo Norte is far more complex than building a digital landscape. She crafts a visual language that speaks to hybrid identities, diasporic journeys, and emotional memory—all within the architecture of Horizon Worlds. This is not art for the sake of novelty—it is art for the sake of cultural reclamation and redefinition.
The integration of surrealist forms, responsive environments, and user interaction allows for layered interpretation. Whether someone enters the experience as a fellow Latinx traveler or as a curious explorer, there is meaning to be found and emotions to be felt. That is the hallmark of immersive storytelling—it breaks the barrier between creator and viewer and fosters genuine empathy.
As the metaverse grows, the inclusion of culturally nuanced, emotionally intelligent projects like Nuevo Norte ensures that it doesn't become just another corporate platform. Instead, it becomes a living, breathing archive of human experience.
Bridging Worlds: The Future of Immersive Cultural Storytelling
Nuevo Norte is not confined to VR. Its physical manifestation as a mural at Art Basel and its augmented reality components accessible through mobile platforms complete the triptych of immersive engagement. This transmedia approach reaffirms the idea that storytelling need not be bound by one format or medium. Whether through headset, phone screen, or physical space, users can encounter and engage with this narrative wherever they are.
This hybrid execution—VR, AR, and mural art—sets a powerful precedent for the future of cultural exhibitions. It allows for inclusivity across technological access points, ensuring that the message is not limited to one demographic. It also invites continuous evolution, as each layer adds new dimension to the work's meaning and reach.
COVL’s vision proves that digital art, when infused with intention and authenticity, can do more than entertain—it can transform. It can heal. It can unify. And it can offer communities a new kind of home, one that floats freely between memory and imagination, grounded by emotion and cultural truth.
Expanding Horizons: From Canvas to Code in COVL’s Artistic Evolution
For multimedia artist COVL, the move from traditional 2D media into the realm of immersive technology was not merely a shift in tools—it was a transformation of dimension, intent, and audience engagement. Known for her bold visual style and powerful storytelling in static formats, COVL has long used illustration as a means of cultural expression. Her work, often seen in campaigns with iconic global brands, is instantly recognizable—vivid, vibrant, and emotionally resonant.
However, the opportunity to build a virtual experience inside Horizon Worlds offered something she hadn’t fully explored before: the ability to surround users with her art, to let them enter the story instead of simply viewing it. At first, the challenge seemed intimidating. The virtual reality landscape was uncharted territory, and sculpting in 3D was far removed from her typical use of brush strokes and layers on a digital screen.
Yet with guidance from Meta’s design team and an intuitive creative process grounded in mood boards, concept sketches, and thematic storytelling, the transition became not only manageable—but empowering. Her artistic instinct found a new dimension. As she explains it, “It was like taking the heart of what I do and giving it breath and space. Suddenly, people could walk through my memories instead of just seeing them.”
The tools in Horizon Worlds enabled her to construct dreamlike environments with intuitive hand movements and real-time object manipulation. This tactile engagement with form and space helped her bridge her familiar visual style with the boundless potential of immersive worldbuilding.
Immersive Aesthetics: Transforming Visual Art into Experiential Environments
In virtual reality, illustration is no longer bound to a screen—it becomes spatial. This redefinition of the medium pushed COVL to reimagine how her work could live and breathe in three-dimensional environments. Instead of conveying depth through digital tricks like drop shadows or layering, she was now literally sculpting light and shaping emotional space.
Her vibrant compositions, typically packed with symbolism, color gradients, and expressive forms, had to be recalibrated. What once relied on optical illusion now depended on lighting physics, real-time interactions, and environmental ambience. “I had to ask myself,” she says, “How does this piece feel when you’re inside it? What happens when the sun moves? When someone leans closer to a texture or walks underneath a sculpture?”
This level of immersion required her to consider factors like atmospheric lighting, natural shadow behavior, and the mood created by different textures. She learned to work with volumetric fog, dynamic lighting sources, and realistic material responses—each one influencing the user's emotional journey through her world.
In many ways, the VR environment became a symphony of sensory cues, each detail carefully tuned to evoke memory, wonder, or cultural pride. Her art became architecture, and her visuals transformed into interactive narratives.
Navigating Cultural Expression in a Digital Space
COVL’s immersive project, Nuevo Norte, is rooted in her identity as a Puerto Rican woman navigating life between two cultures. Bringing Latinx heritage into a virtual setting presented both an exciting creative opportunity and a delicate responsibility. It was essential to build an environment that not only reflected her personal history but also resonated with a broader community across the Latinx diaspora.
Rather than attempt a broad generalization of Latin culture, she focused on intimate, authentic experiences—snapshots from her own upbringing. Morning coffee with grandparents. Tropical landscapes that felt like home. Street music echoing through humid nights in Miami. These became the foundation of the immersive scenes within Nuevo Norte.
Such specificity allowed users from diverse backgrounds to connect emotionally, even if their cultural references differed. The emotional universality embedded in each memory gave her environments a rare kind of resonance—grounded, personal, and deeply human.
At the same time, she was intentional in avoiding cultural tropes. She built spaces filled with emotional texture, not caricature. For COVL, immersive storytelling meant more than representation; it meant reclamation—reclaiming how culture is shared, experienced, and remembered in the digital age.
From Memory to Architecture: The Building Blocks of Nuevo Norte
At the center of Nuevo Norte lies a series of floating islands—each acting as a portal into distinct aspects of COVL’s identity and memory. These islands aren’t arbitrary scenes; they are emotionally mapped experiences designed to reflect the multiplicity of being Latinx in America.
La Islá, a lush and animated world, merges her experiences in Puerto Rico and Miami. Trees sway in rhythm with ambient sounds, skies shift color depending on your position, and interactive foliage invites the user into a living ecosystem inspired by the artist’s childhood surroundings.
Cafecito reimagines mornings spent with her grandparents, using aroma-inspired design and soft acoustic layers to evoke familial warmth. A simple table, a gentle breeze, and the subtle hiss of coffee brewing—every element is choreographed to stir quiet nostalgia.
Cuéntamelo, which translates to “Tell Me,” provides a space for communal storytelling. Users are encouraged to share personal anecdotes or listen to pre-recorded oral histories embedded in the space. It's a digital firepit of sorts, where collective memory is preserved and passed on.
Discoteca, an electrifying multi-level dancefloor, pays tribute to Miami’s nightlife scene and the liberation found in rhythm and movement. Floating manatees drift overhead while users dance under cosmic lights—reminding everyone that joy, too, is a vital part of heritage.
Each island was carefully sculpted with emotional topography in mind. The intention was not only to guide the user visually but to move them emotionally—offering both celebration and contemplation in equal measure.
The Metaverse as a Living Canvas for Diasporic Stories
The rise of metaverse platforms like Horizon Worlds has sparked conversations around digital inclusion, representation, and creative equity. COVL’s work demonstrates how these virtual environments can serve as more than escapist playgrounds—they can become archives of identity and memory for communities navigating hybrid existences.
Her use of Horizon Worlds was not just technically impressive; it was ideologically important. She took a tool designed for universal building and used it to tell a specific story, deeply embedded in Latinx history and personal introspection. Her process became a blueprint for how marginalized narratives can thrive in immersive ecosystems.
Through layers of symbolism, language, and sound, she crafted a new kind of cultural landscape—one where digital land is shaped by ancestral memory. The metaverse, once seen as a sterile technological domain, was transformed into fertile soil for community storytelling.
Her success in weaving these narratives into 3D space suggests that immersive digital platforms have the potential to evolve into repositories of collective history, preserved not through books or film, but through lived interaction.
Empowering Future Creators to Embrace the Medium
As virtual reality continues to evolve, COVL’s journey offers a powerful lesson to other artists standing at the edge of immersive creation: you don’t need to abandon your discipline to enter the metaverse—you simply need to reimagine its application.
For illustrators, painters, animators, and writers, virtual worlds offer unprecedented freedom. The ability to layer narrative with motion, space, and interaction provides a more embodied storytelling experience—one that aligns perfectly with traditions of oral history and ritual.
COVL believes that curiosity, not technical mastery, is the most important tool for entering immersive media. “If you’re willing to explore and ask questions, you’ll find your place in this space,” she says. Her collaboration with Meta wasn’t about changing who she was as an artist—it was about scaling her vision into a space where more people could walk through it.
By sharing her process and experience, she’s encouraging a new generation of creators—especially from underrepresented backgrounds—to claim space in the metaverse and use it not just to entertain, but to empower.
Reframing Virtual Worlds as Real Cultural Spaces
COVL’s work challenges the notion that virtual spaces are somehow disconnected from real life. Through Nuevo Norte, she has shown that immersive design can carry as much emotional and cultural weight as a physical monument. Her worlds aren’t fantasy—they are rooted in truth, memory, and lived experience.
In an era where physical space can often feel limiting—whether due to geography, politics, or access—virtual reality opens a new pathway for shared experience. It allows diasporic communities to reconnect with fragments of their heritage and envision futures that center their voices.
Her use of immersive storytelling elevates the metaverse from a speculative playground to a purposeful tool for expression, healing, and legacy. As more creators follow her lead, the digital universe will begin to reflect the vibrant complexity of the real one.
Through her visionary approach, COVL has not only expanded her own artistic vocabulary—she has also expanded our understanding of what art can be in the age of immersive technology.
Immersive Storytelling Across Realities: A New Frontier in Art at Art Basel
When Nuevo Norte was unveiled at Art Basel Miami, it wasn’t just an installation—it was an ecosystem of experience. It offered more than visual engagement; it constructed an experiential dialogue between the real and the virtual. Designed by artist COVL in collaboration with Meta, this innovative project unfolded in three dimensions: physical, augmented, and virtual, combining to form a unified narrative that pushed the boundaries of contemporary creative expression.
The mural—a commanding 8-by-20-foot visual landscape—acted as the physical anchor of the project. Situated within the buzz of Art Basel, it invited festivalgoers to stop, observe, and feel. But this wasn’t just a static piece; it was a gateway. Viewers could use their smartphones to scan the mural via Instagram’s AR filters, unlocking a layer of animation and interactivity that brought the artwork to life.
Leaves danced, colors shifted, birds flew through tropical skies, and digital storytelling expanded before their eyes. It felt cinematic and immediate—an artistic evolution from wall to world, canvas to experience. The AR experience blurred perception, proving that physical murals can transcend space when enhanced with immersive technology.
The final component—the full VR version within Horizon Worlds—invited participants to enter a completely digital manifestation of COVL’s vision. Here, the floating islands of Nuevo Norte could be explored freely, each brimming with sensory-rich details, ambient sounds, and cultural memory. Together, the three dimensions transformed the installation into a mixed reality universe where art was not only viewed—it was lived.
Bridging Dimensions: Mural, AR, and Metaverse as One Cohesive Narrative
Few art experiences can claim to fully merge the physical and digital realms without compromise. Yet Nuevo Norte excelled precisely because it didn’t favor one medium over the other—it honored the unique properties of each. The tactile nature of the mural allowed for human intimacy. The AR component delivered accessibility and innovation. The virtual world provided depth, interaction, and immersion.
Each layer built upon the next, offering users a new entry point based on their comfort, curiosity, or level of tech engagement. A first-time viewer might simply appreciate the mural. A curious visitor could interact with the augmented reality filter and discover new movements and visuals embedded in the piece. And those ready to journey further could put on a headset and wander the full scope of COVL’s envisioned metaverse world.
This fluid integration of art forms represents a shift in how creators are beginning to think about storytelling. Instead of choosing one format, they are exploring how multiple mediums can interlock, creating richer, more democratic experiences that meet users where they are.
Designing for Interaction: The Artist’s Perspective
What makes COVL’s approach to this mixed reality project so impactful is her sensitivity to the user’s emotional journey. For her, designing the mural wasn’t about replicating the VR world—it was about distilling its essence and finding visual cues that could translate across space and medium. She described the process as reverse-engineering a dream: “I imagined the full world first. Then I asked myself—what pieces could survive in the physical world and still feel alive?”
The AR layer added an element of magic realism to the mural, reinforcing her signature style—organic, fluid, and infused with kinetic energy. It turned a wall into a portal, inviting viewers to engage with the piece more like a living organism than a static image.
Meanwhile, the VR experience allowed her to build a complete world using Horizon Worlds’ creative tools—floating structures, dynamic lighting, ambient soundtracks, and motion-triggered interactions. She approached the task not as a technician, but as a storyteller expanding her toolkit.
In VR, COVL could go beyond suggestion. She could build environments that breathe, objects that respond to touch, and spaces that invite both play and contemplation. Her artistic language, once confined to color and line, now included light beams, animated textures, interactive elements, and three-dimensional perspective.
Sensory Memory as Storytelling Structure
What unifies Nuevo Norte across all platforms is its deeply emotional foundation. Whether painted on a wall, animated through AR, or rendered in Horizon Worlds, the project draws heavily from COVL’s personal memories and her cultural heritage as a Puerto Rican artist.
Each scene she creates is infused with sensory memories—scents, sounds, colors, and textures that reflect her upbringing. In the VR space, users hear the buzz of coquí frogs and the strumming of distant guitars. In the AR-enhanced mural, they see tropical plants sway as if touched by an invisible breeze. These details are not random. They serve as mnemonic triggers, allowing viewers to feel connection through shared or mirrored experiences.
By rooting the experience in universal human elements—memory, emotion, family, and environment—COVL makes Nuevo Norte accessible across cultural lines. It is specific in its origins but open in its empathy. It allows each participant to find echoes of their own past while discovering someone else’s story.
The Metaverse as an Emerging Canvas for Cultural Identity
As the art world continues to explore the possibilities of immersive technology, projects like Nuevo Norte show how virtual spaces can become powerful tools for cultural storytelling. COVL’s use of Horizon Worlds goes beyond aesthetics—it becomes a medium for reimagining identity.
In the metaverse, geography is fluid, and identity can be displayed in multidimensional formats. This freedom allows diasporic artists like COVL to create worlds that aren't bound by colonial narratives or Western art traditions. Instead, they can redefine space on their own terms—infused with heritage, spirit, and community.
Through her collaboration with Meta, COVL transforms digital space into a sanctuary of remembrance and imagination. The floating islands of Nuevo Norte symbolize not just creative exploration, but cultural reclamation. They float untethered, unbounded by map or time zone, yet deeply rooted in real emotion.
This application of virtual storytelling isn’t just experimental—it’s necessary. As societies become increasingly global, artists will need tools to express identity in layered, nonlinear, and accessible ways. The metaverse, if guided by voices like COVL’s, may become the next great archive of human expression.
Redefining Artistic Practice in an Age of Immersion
For COVL, the mixed reality process behind Nuevo Norte marks a turning point in her creative practice. Previously celebrated for her 2D illustrations and mural work, she now sees immersive design as a natural extension—not a departure—from her previous work. “I don’t see this as changing mediums,” she says. “It’s just adding new layers.”
By merging VR, AR, and physical installation, she’s stepping into what many are calling the post-medium era of art—where disciplines overlap, boundaries dissolve, and the experience itself becomes the primary medium.
This shift reflects a broader movement in the creative community. Artists are no longer siloed into categories like “digital,” “fine,” or “street.” The rise of immersive tools like Horizon Worlds, Tilt Brush, and Spark AR is enabling a generation of cross-disciplinary creators to invent entirely new experiences that challenge traditional definitions of art.
The implications are profound. Museums may become portals. Murals may sing. And public spaces could host augmented rituals, activating cultural storytelling in ways never before possible.
The Metaverse as an Open Invitation for All Creators
One of the most empowering messages behind Nuevo Norte is COVL’s encouragement for other artists to take creative risks within the immersive space. She’s adamant that the metaverse should not be viewed as an exclusive playground for technologists or developers. Instead, it should be understood as a blank canvas—open, adaptive, and ready to be shaped by storytellers of all kinds.
She urges artists to approach virtual design with the same curiosity they bring to any new medium. “You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to care about your message,” she says. With platforms like Horizon Worlds offering low-barrier access to world-building tools, creators can begin experimenting with spatial storytelling almost immediately.
Her story serves as proof that immersive technology is not only for those with coding experience or gaming backgrounds. Artists, dancers, writers, musicians—anyone with a voice—can shape this digital future.
The metaverse may still be in its formative years, but with creators like COVL pioneering new methods of authentic expression, its evolution is heading toward inclusivity, diversity, and cultural richness. And in that reality, every story—no matter how personal or specific—has the power to transform space, perception, and connection.
Final Thoughts:
The journey of Nuevo Norte is a vivid reminder of the extraordinary potential that virtual reality holds—not just as a technological innovation, but as a deeply human platform for storytelling, cultural reflection, and creative liberation. COVL’s work underscores the power of immersive art to transcend conventional mediums and open up entirely new avenues for expression, especially for communities whose narratives have often been marginalized or simplified in traditional art spaces.
In Nuevo Norte, memory becomes architecture, nostalgia turns into sound, and identity is etched into the very fabric of the virtual landscape. It’s more than an art project—it’s an emotional and cultural ecosystem that welcomes visitors not just to look, but to feel, to reflect, and to connect. It shows how immersive experiences can provide new ways to honor our personal and collective stories, bringing depth and dimension to culture in ways no static image or linear video could accomplish.
This project also sets a precedent for how future artists might engage with the metaverse—not merely as a digital playground, but as a canvas of infinite scale. By merging physical murals, AR elements, and VR worlds, COVL has created a multilayered narrative structure that invites audiences to engage at different touch points depending on their curiosity, comfort, or technological access. This type of accessibility, inclusivity, and multi-platform integration is exactly what the future of art needs.
Moreover, Nuevo Norte offers a meaningful counterpoint to the often-commercialized image of the metaverse. Instead of centering profit or spectacle, it centers identity, emotion, and connection. It’s a reminder that technology, when placed in the hands of thoughtful and culturally rooted artists, becomes a powerful tool for empathy, not just entertainment.
As virtual spaces become increasingly mainstream, the challenge—and opportunity—will be ensuring they reflect the richness of the real world. Projects like Nuevo Norte show us how that’s possible. They invite us to dream bigger, design boldly, and most importantly, to bring our whole selves into these new realities. Because the future of art isn't just virtual—it's visceral, vibrant, and undeniably human.
