On March 25, 2014, expectations were high when Facebook (now Meta) acquired Oculus VR, then a leading company in immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. When the acquisition was announced (“approximately $2 billion,” later revealed to be closer to $3 billion), Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg talked about how Oculus would “prepare for the platform of tomorrow” He talked about whether we should change the way we do things. We work, play, and communicate. ”
It's fair to say that change has not yet arrived, not just in the art community but in the wider world, at least not as much as Zuckerberg and others predicted. VR headsets, including Meta's latest product, the Quest 3, are not uncommon at exhibitions and galleries, and the artist is widely commissioned to create his VR work. There is no doubt that it is one of the mediums in the art ecosystem. However, there is little evidence that this effect causes tectonic movements.
The 10th anniversary of the Oculus acquisition just so happens to coincide with the US release of Apple's Vision Pro. The company calls it “the first spatial computer.” It's a “mixed reality (MR) headset that seamlessly blends digital and physical content.” Apple CEO Tim Cook said the release marks a “new era of computing” on par with the original Mac and iPhone. So what is the current state of virtual reality's impact on art? Could Vision Pro push it into new territory?
A vibrant VR subculture
From the beginning, there has been “multiple talk” about VR and its potential, as Michael Connor, co-executive director of Rhizome, a “born digital” arts and culture center in partnership with New York's New Museum, says. . “The role of the artist who takes us from that point to this point is to work within that space, trying to understand that despite all the nuances and complexities of this form, something concrete and new can be done. VR in the home hasn't caught on yet, but there's a thriving subculture of people using it, and artists have been doing some really interesting experiments in that space that wouldn't be possible with other formats. Even if the breadth of the medium did not materialize in the way some had hoped, certainly its depth evolved in much the same way as its proponents had hoped. There is.”
Michael Connor and Xinlan Yuan of the “born-digital'' art nonprofit Rhizome say there are “multiple stories'' in VR. Photo: Metti Ostrowski, courtesy of Rhizome
Curator Xinran Yuan, Connor's colleague at Rhizome, suggests that artists seeking VR have “two major goals.” “One is artistic innovation. And VR as an artistic tool is incredibly powerful, allowing artists to create anything. [the artists] Ilya and Emilia Kabakov talk about “Total Installation”. Second, she says, “I dream of a day when you can expand your audience and allow everyone, everywhere to experience your work in an authentic way, without having to go to one museum.”
While the second may be a long way off, the first “has been available to an elitist group of artists for some time,” she suggests. In fact, Yuan has worked with both HTC (whose Vive headset rivals Oculus/Meta in terms of art world adoption) and her Meta itself in collaborations with artists and organizations. She hopes that with the introduction of Vision Pro, “more artists will have access to easier-to-use tools and won't always have to rely on a group of technicians or a studio to collaborate.”
Less intrusion into technology may create more room for criticism. “Artists actively using this technology is itself a critique of mainstream use, which is largely commercial and corporate use, primarily by professional gamers. But the validity of that critique is that artists “It won't really surface until there's more adoption by artists and artists can actually get their hands on the technology,” Yuan said.
However, the Vision Pro retails for $3,500. And importantly, in terms of its development as an art tool, it was not available to artists at the development stage. This was also pivotal at other moments in VR's history. Shehzad Dawood has been creating work that “combines knowledge systems and experiential influences in very radical ways” for more than 30 years, a process he calls “imagineering,” and is one of VR's most enduring He is one of the users.
Shehzad Dawood. The artist has created a virtual reality piece that explores “the physical and the non-physical, and even where technology and spirituality meet.” © Jonathan Glyn Smith
Through a “maverick programmer” friend, Dawood was able to get his hands on a prototype in 2013, three years before the Vive hit the “prosumer” market. Kalimpong (2016), his first VR work, is currently in the Guggenheim collection. Its structure is Tibetan Book of the DeadThis allowed him to explore “ideas such as embodiment and disembodiment, and even the potential for technology and spirituality to meet.”In his 2020 VR work terrariumMeanwhile, “the audience becomes a kind of post-human marine hybrid based on digital sculptures I made earlier,” says Dawood. By placing the viewer in a “larger body of thought that already enriches them before they even come to VR,” it gives the technological elements “a sense of play on the edge of embodiment.” he added.
he took this to new heights night in the garden of love, a project of Wheels in Brussels, is currently on view at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto (until May 5th). This work has important innovations. “This is his first two-player experience,” explains Dawood. It begins in a “dystopian Detroit” where a “human-plant hybrid character” leads his two players through a recycling complex to a “transcendental garden of love.” The two-player feature is a feature that allows two players to actually be aware of each other and look at each other.
social commitment
This tendency to find social uses for technology is where virtual experiences are perhaps the most productive. Artists like Hito Steyerl and Jakob Kutsuk Steensen have taken the relatively unassuming and admittedly unwieldy technology of smartphones to create incredibly powerful augmented reality (AR) works. And this may suggest how an artist can take advantage of Vision Pro when working on his MR experience.
As Connor says, “Many people are responding to aspects of AR that are more like the social layer of the world than immersive art.” This relationship “will probably be disrupted a little bit with the release of Vision Pro, because AR will now be used in a different technology environment,” he says. Yuan said he hasn't tried the Vision Pro, but noted his commentary on “how clearly it incorporates his layers of reality.” She further added: “In fact, I'm really looking forward to seeing what great creations will be created with the newer and better headsets. I don't want to hype you up, but this is always about imagination and what you can do with this headset.” And now we might finally be able to do that.”
London-based VR platform Vortic embraces mixed reality with Meta Quest 3: Leda and the Swana 2023 collaboration between Victoria Miro and Vortic, curated by Minna Moore Ede Voltic Limited
Oliver Miro, through his company Vortic, set out to create 3D exhibitions across the online space, including VR. Victoria Miro is his director of sales for his gallery, and he is often seen using a headset in the private spaces of his art fair stands and how objects are displayed in exhibition spaces and indoors. We offer collectors an experience that is more authentic than what it seems. And with Meta Quest 3, Vortic embraced mixed reality. This is proven in the following article: Leda and the Swan, last year's collaboration between Victoria Miro and Vortic, curated by Minna Moore Ede. “Minna had worked at the National Gallery for many years and had some great work, so we wanted to use that as a reference for this exhibition. So, you walk around the contemporary works, and when you put on a headset, you can see mixed reality. historical works are displayed,” Miro says. With commentary from Moore Ehde, he says this was a “great use case” for the medium.
He said the Vision Pro was “waiting for hardware to support the quality of the software,” and that the Quest 3 “moved into that space” but lacked that computing power. The Vision Pro is “the first real headset that we feel can deliver the quality we expected.” But despite his overall excitement, Apple's relationship with independent developers remains The peculiarities of the launch of Vision Pro, with little cooperation between them, mean that its influence is unlikely to be felt in Vortic's or any other activity for some time. It was “a crazy way to launch,” Milo says. “We've wanted to work on it for the past year. We were ready.” Miro said Vortic's technical team is currently working on new challenges for Vision Pro. These include surprising problems with people getting sick while watching videos or trying to move around.
As an experienced VR user, Dawood approaches Vision Pro the same way he approaches all tools and media. “My basic position hasn't changed. I'm very wary of all of that,” he says. Despite his skepticism, he said, “I think it's a good idea to take some of your creative ideas and some of the new questions you want to ask about technology and actually start playing with it and see where it leads.'' It can be done.” He hopes for the “mutual embodiment” he sought. night in the garden of love It can be developed into “something more like a collective, communal experience.” Vision Pro could make that possible. But it may take some time to find out.
