Art & Technology — a virtual reality
November 23rd, 2017
Meshminds x 1880
In this session replete with a real-time Virtual Reality painting demonstration, we opened our eyes and mind to the potential of technology in an industry of centuries old.
We explored the dissolving boundaries between “the art world” and “digital art”, and it was brought to our awareness that the accessibility to art is increasing. Wydr, for example, an app that is likened to Tinder for the art world, provides users with the opportunity to purchase art by swiping right on their phone. Instead of spending time to discover and understand stories behind intriguing art, individuals are now seduced by the suggestions of algorithms. We questioned if this is innately functional or actually detaches us from the true meaning of art.
Art, as personally described by Dr. Meri Rosich, Chief Information Officer of BigData Innovation & Business Transformation in Japan, is something that makes her “feel loved, whole, and peaceful”. Why does art have to be tactile, unique, and experienced by one person when it can be shared online with the rest of the world?
It is known that contemporary artists today work with technologies that make it as easy to create digital works, as it is to paint or sculpt.
For instance, with Tilt Brush technology, 3D world builder, illustrator, and visual artist André Wee constructed a habitat that looked more spectacularly organic than digitally enhanced. As one who is obsessed with constructing spaces that are real and imagined, physical and digital, logical and impossible for others to experience, André subsequently welcomed us to inhabit his new environment and recreate it.
It was a whole new world before us. Like an invitation to wander and wonder, we picked up a controller, and started painting. While technology opens up possibilities to the art world, it is the power of the human imagination that allows art to flourish — it is our imagination that envisions what our eyes see.
