Arts and museums in the Metaverse
Metaverse is a virtual world that allows users to visit other, similar virtual worlds or even physical places that are far from their actual locations. It is a vast network that connects computers and other devices across the world. As a result, it will be able to connect anything — from art objects to automobiles. The technology that underlies this project has been around for over a decade but has now reached its final stage of development. The art world is not only successfully experimenting with NFT, but also trying its hand at interacting with virtual spaces.
The potential impact of the Metaverse on culture and art
During the lockdown caused by the 2020 pandemic, cultural educational institutions urgently looked for solutions: museums held virtual tours, educational institutions organized classes remotely. It became obvious the need to search for an option for online communication that is not inferior to the real one.
Museum and exhibition expositions attract people, acquaint them with cultural and historical heritage, and open access to famous artifacts. For safety reasons, art objects are fenced off, and the gathered crowd of connoisseurs does not leave even the slightest chance to see the details. It remains only to eagerly catch snippets of the guide's words, briefly examining the hall, in an attempt to keep up with the group. Despite these restrictions, exhibits periodically leave the galleries for restoration.
In the conditions of the Metaverse, art objects become almost eternal, require less maintenance costs compared to a physical prototype. A visit to the museum in the Metaverse will provide complete immersion due to the interior, will allow you to zoom in and examine even the smallest details of the exhibits. The feeling of being on the tour will be complemented by the fact that the guide connects to cyberspace together with the group, and each participant will be able to seize the initiative to ask questions to the expert, pay attention to a separate object.
The innovative platform will allow you to go beyond the usual expositions with the help of technologies to “revive” the exhibits. Developers of the virtual environment will eventually provide even more cognitive features that will allow the brain to read the virtual world as real.
What can the Metaverse offer to art and its viewers?
What if you could travel to the past, present, and future? What if you could experience things in real time? What if you could go to the museum in the Metaverse? Would it be possible to visit museums in a virtual reality environment? Let’s assume that virtual reality was made easier to manufacture than it currently is. The cost of a VR headset would drop significantly and it would no longer be necessary to have a bulky laptop or desktop computer hooked up to your phone or desktop computer. In addition, we don’t need sophisticated software — just an inexpensive camera or camera phone with sufficient processing power.
As for museums, they can also be created in Metaverse (or other virtual worlds). Virtual museums will lead people on an interactive journey through art history and history of art as well as exhibit exhibits from all over the world. A museum could also be developed where visitors can live out their own version of being on tour with famous artists who have been creating works for years.
Thinking positively, the digitization of collections will be enhanced to allow more objects to lead a parallel, digital life of their own. The boundaries of "objects" created digitally are much more fluid, not only in terms of the possibility of multiple evolving changes, but also in terms of how these objects transform in different contexts, allowing the audience to embark on a unique journey of discovery and interaction, like this seen in game worlds, where moving around the environment allows you to get to know its various objects and structures from different points of view.
How virtual reality could be used to create more immersive museums and exhibition experiences
In the coming years, we will see more ways for museums and other cultural institutions to use virtual reality (VR) to enhance and improve their exhibition, gallery, or museum experiences.
These museums and galleries will use VR to enable visitors to experience a different aspect of an exhibit, such as whether they can feel the texture of an object by holding it or walking around the room. The interactive nature of VR will also be used in conjunction with traditional exhibitions of art works.
Art objects can be placed in VR environments that help visitors understand the artworks more thoroughly by allowing them to interact with them through gestures, which is a very different way of looking at art than merely viewing it.
Virtual reality has a number of applications in education and research as well, where researchers are exploring how VR could be used for educational purposes by bringing computers into classrooms to help students learn new information and practice critical thinking skills. Virtual reality study could also be used for developing better perception skills for children who have visual impairments or dementia.
One of the most significant developments in the metaverse has been the creation of digital spaces for artists to showcase their work to a global community of collectors and fans. Art galleries are fast becoming the cornerstone of the metaverse, where artists create exhibitions of their NFT work and buyers have the opportunity to purchase NFT art directly from these virtual exhibitions.