Can Immersive Technology Help Arts Institutions Reach Beyond Their Walls? This Foundation Is Counting On It. – Forbes
04 April 2019, Berlin: After a press conference on the project “With the Monk at the Sea – Caspar David Friedrich in Virtual Reality”, a woman wears 3D glasses in her hand. The famous work of art is to be experienced virtually with 3D glasses.
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The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Microsoft recently announced a call-for-ideas from artists, companies and technologists to look at new ways that arts and cultural institutions can engage audiences through immersive experiences.
The opening call was announced on July 27, 2019 during the Gray Area Festival held in San Francisco. The festival is geared towards fostering arts and technology and showcased immersive art experiences using virtual reality (VR), extended reality, artificial intelligence, sound technology and augmented reality.
The call-for-ideas will award a share of $750,000 in funding as well as technical support, mixed-reality mentorship and technology access and training from Microsoft.
Chris Barr, director of arts and technology innovation at Knight Foundation said that a number of arts institutions have begun to present art experience and engagement projects with immersive technology.
Microsoft worked with the Musée des Plans-Reliefs in Paris in their mixed reality (MR) experience called The Mont Saint-Michel Digital Perspectives in 2018. The MR experience let visitors use Microsoft HoloLens to explore a 3D model Mont-Saint-Michel.
Barr also cites VR art experiences like Dreams of Dali, CARNE y ARENA and AR projects at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Perez Art Museum Miami as examples of experiences at the intersection of art and technology.
In late 2018, the Musée de l’Orangerie had its first VR offering. Through an HTC Vive headset, viewers were transported to Monet’s garden in Giverny to have a digital studio experience.
“The technology is here to deploy these experiences, but in many ways, these can be boutique efforts, and as a field, we are still learning,” said Barr. “Through this call-for-ideas, we hope to learn more about how arts institutions can operationalize the deployment of this tech in their spaces, how to make the experiences great for visitors, and how we can reach new audiences and tell new stories through these new mediums.”
Invasive Species (Dec. 5, 2017 to June 30, 2019) was a virtually interactive, digital exhibition of commissioned works by Miami-based artist Felice Grodin at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
Photo by Adrienne Chadwick
Barr says his hope for the call-for-ideas will help art and cultural institutions identify how to present immersive experiences to the public efficiently and effectively.
“There have been several opportunities available to artists and creators who are making content for these devices and mediums, but fewer opportunities to think through how you present that content to the public in a cultural institution,” adds Barr. “That is what we are hoping to address with the new call-for-ideas.”
