VR Technology and its Effect on the Art Industry
Responsible for painting the tales of human history, is the noble paint brush finally dead?
Virtual Reality, otherwise known as VR, is an evolution of mankind and a step into the realm of becoming God; omnipotent and omni-present.Or so it feels, when you are handed you the keys to interactive creation — combined with audio manipulation and room scaling, an artist’s creations can come to life before their eyes.
Exhibitions installed in places such as the Hap Gallery in Portland transform abandoned halls into dizzying, multi-dimensional displays of light. Described as “like a game or puzzle to be solved”, this can only be the start, and perhaps the evolution, of light painting in the digital age.
Art has always been a personal display for humanity; an echo of an artists’ feelings that words cannot form. Scratches on cave walls transformed into Egyptian sculptures, which in turn swirled into the rebirth of the Renaissance period. This is to say, art is an evolutionary process.
With VR leading the era of immersive experiences, artists like Lumen Prize winning Fabio Giampietro with his work “Hyperplanes of Simultaneity” are exploring the concept of
“taking the spectator inside and beyond the painting”.
As noted by Charlotte Lee, Assistant Director of The Lumen Prize, this technology “questions the boundary that exists between the real and the virtual, but it also has the ability to break down the barrier that exists between the spectator and the work of art”. The intense nature of VR makes VR feel infinitely more alive than brush strokes on a canvas; the work of art is no longer just an object to contemplate on the wall of a gallery or museum, but it is one that the audience can explore and become part of.
You may ask yourself, how exactly?
Digital art, apps and multimedia have always had their place in the art world. Software such as Adobe Photoshop and hardware such as Wacom tablets means that digital art in the digital age is easily accessible to all. But following the success of Google’s Tilt Brush in 2016, which turns your VR controller into a paint brush, the potential VR has to impact the art industry is demonstrated further. By breaking down the barriers, all forms of art, from sculpture, painting and architecture, to photography, set design and games seem to collide in this new space.
The digital nature of this new platform of art allows Google and online gallery allows people from all over the world to share their art made in the app. This digitalisation of art galleries means that everyone can be part of an exhibition. This is perhaps the greatest part of VR — art is now open to everyone; a rush of human emotion that bonds people from all over the world.
What does this mean for the future of the art industry?
VR remains a somewhat niche market to aspiring and existing artists. Concerns have been raised by gatekeepers that the evolution of art is leading to the death of the paint brush. Will brush be dead if VR continues to spark interest?
Unlikely. In a similar fashion to the fears of the introduction of the Kindle, art has far too rich a history to completely abandon its roots in favour of shiny new technology. At the moment, the technology is far too expensive, and far too problematic with its tendency to cause motion sickness, to replace the simple tools that have painted a beautiful world for centuries.
Enjoy art. It’s going to last longer than we will.
