Vicarious Domestic States: The Post-Domestic Turn of Digital Twinning Habitual Settings

The desire to live vicariously, mirroring behavioural conditions external to one’s own home,
gives each home multiple lives in a hyper-functional world. Technology’s fusion with the
home produces two outcomes. First, the ability to capture comprehensive, three-dimensional records of a home’s physical conditions and traces using light detection and
ranging (LiDAR) data, connects functional layout more concretely to behavioural scripts.
Second, virtual mirroring converts transferable information about the home from generalities to hyper-specific singularities. A home’s digital twin can contribute to archives of
domestic conditions disseminated as assets for access, download, and manipulation in
other media. Behavioural simulation and gaming can simulate exact domestic conditions
from throughout the world, rather than interpreted approximations.
This paper draws on projects developing digital twins of homes in several locations in
Hong Kong. Researchers are using 3D scanning technology to record homes in public
housing flats and in the stilt house architecture of Tai O Village. The paper discusses
technology and workflows employed, theorizing the technological and social impacts of
domestic digital twins in data archives. The paper uses graphic precedents to demonstrate archiving protocols and speculate on influences the post-digital turn will have on
domestic environments and behaviour.