How VR Became an Essential Tool for Arts Organisations

Ben Templeton on 2018-05-01

How VR is Becoming an Essential Tool for Arts Organisations

A few of the projects and approaches that use virtual reality to transform the way we experience classic works of art—and create new ones.

Virtual reality may well be going mainstream, but there is still a dearth of content. This is partly due to the unavoidable cost of creating it for 360-degree consumption, in contrast with the more controlled field of view offered by TV, tablet, or even theatre. But more importantly, content producers are still learning which curatorial approaches and modes of interaction best suit the medium.

Over the past 18 months, there have been some fascinating experiments in the arts and culture sector and I have selected the following examples for their quality and diversity of execution. Beyond being great individual experiences that prove the hype, together they hint at the patterns defining how the sector will continue to evolve.

Google Cultural Institute’s 360 VR piece “Bruegel: the Fall of the Rebel Angels”

Bruegel: the Fall of the Rebel Angels, March 2016

Faced with the challenges of transporting large scale works, Michel Draguet, Director General of Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, wanted a safe, more affordable way to bring his Renaissance artwork to a wider audience. Institutions from Brussels, Budapest, Berlin, and more coordinated with Google Cultural Institute to demonstrate how 360 video could do just that.

© Royal Academy of Arts / HTC Vive

Virtually Real, Royal Academy of Arts, January 2017

The launch of Google’s Tilt Brush on HTC Vive was a landmark moment in what felt like the birth of a new medium; art could be experienced in full 3D, completely enveloping the viewer. The Royal Academy was quick off the mark to involve the wider public, using off-the-shelf software to populate a dedicated exhibition, “Virtually Real.”

Magritte’s VR cinema © C.H./ADAGP Paris / BDH

Magritte VR, Summer 2017

Commissioned by the artist’s estate, marking 50 year’s since his death, this piece was delivered in true Magritte style, via a specially constructed giant bowler hat. The shared experience, for up to 50 people, was built over 6 months from hi-res scans of over 40 works.

Van Gogh’s Sunflower paintings reunited in VR © Visualise

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Summer 2017

A project made possible by the power of the technology, here every Van Gogh Sunflower painting is reunited in a single gallery, narrated by the great-grandson of Van Gogh’s brother Theo. No less than five institutions teamed up to reunite these paintings: London’s National Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Neue Pinakothek in Munich, the Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art in Tokyo, and, of course, the Van Gogh Museum.

The Ochre Atelier © Tate / Preloaded

Modigliani VR: The Ochre Atelier, November 2017

One of the first of its kind, initially only accessible in a dedicated gallery space midway through Tate’s blockbuster retrospective. Visitors are transported to Modigliani’s 1919 Parisian studio, beautifully recreated in painstaking detail and all the more impressive given this studio has never been visited by anyone alive today.

Phil Stuart, creative director on the project, explains the approach: “Understanding art is about understanding the painter, the paintings and also the social and historical context. The opportunity with virtual reality and with this project is to try and deliver that in a very short experience that really gets you closer to those details.” Hilary Knight Knight, Head of Digital Content at Tate, adds, “You get that gut-feel understanding you don’t necessarily get from reading or looking at 2D pictures.”

The evolving affordances of VR technology will continue to affect how the medium is used, but of more interest is why institutions and artists are using it. Over the last 18 months, three common themes have emerged, with a trend towards ever deeper immersion.

As the capacity for deeper immersion increases, is it unreasonable to expect a future where the emotions and sensations of an artist can be piped directly into our brains? Throw in some haptic feedback and we may soon feel what Van Gogh felt in his famous moment of self-harm, or the joy of an incapacitated Matisse wielding his scissors with new-found flair.

That future may be some way off, but the industry has clearly learned to walk; how exciting to speculate what happens when it learns to run.

More examples of artists and art institutions embracing Virtual Reality…

This piece was published in 2018, and updated as part of an issue of Immerse sponsored by the Knight Foundation in conjunction with their call for ideas to advance immersive arts experiences. Open for applications through August 12, the call offers recipients a share of $750,000 in funding, as well as optional technical support from Microsoft. Learn more.

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