UNIVERSITY OF SALFORD ART COLLECTION ‘WHAT’S IN STORE’ VR GALLERY

Salford University's collaboration with ArtSeeCare, a company which seeks to bring art to people in hospitals through VR.

http://www.metaobjects.org/work/university-of-salford-art-collection-vr-gallery/





If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.

Virtual Reality In Education: A couple of useful links

General links to articles and websites about VR in education...

This is a blog post by Kelly Singh who talks about VR in education and its potential benefits:
https://briovr.com/blog/virtual-reality-in-education-a-teachers-guide/

Amber Osborne is the CMO at Doghead Simulations, a virtual reality meeting software company. This is an article where she discusses their virtual class room in which she references Ready Player One:
http://missdestructo.com/2018/01/virtual-reality-in-education-making-ready-player-one-a-reality-with-rumii/

A Daily Telegraph article:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/01/23/school-using-virtual-reality-prepare-pupils-future-dominated/

The possibility report: With VR the World is Your Classroom:
https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/vmware-2017/vr-world-classroom/1658/

...and there are a lot of companies popping up, who are providing/supporting VR in education (in no particular order):

http://www.primevr.co.uk/

https://immerse.io/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAkMDiBRDNARIsACKP1FH86v2EGG_VlrKqOGGDOFcVc3Hq4hQY_EBlnMsrfBp4F0HCLRml5b0aAhnlEALw_wcB

https://www.yourcloudworks.com/education/google-for-education-buckinghamshire/virtual-reality/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAkMDiBRDNARIsACKP1FE-8Dub7J2zNhUFyvMYQpXwrhR66eG4MAmgd064qg327vj5DrQO6nQaAsICEALw_wcB#.XFBBs5PFKV4

http://www.classvr.com/virtual-reality-in-education/

If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.

A Gallery for Fine Art Student's Digital Works

This was meant to be a post about the inclusion of moving image in VR galleries, in this case GIF animations. However, it turns out that GIFs are incompatible with UE4. It looks like I have to create a grid out of the individual frames and import as a flick-book. I will see how I get on tomorrow.

In the mean time... I have created a space that includes a number of elements that worked well on previous builds - lots of daylight, differentiated ceiling heights, one room/wall per artwork, directed movement and spot lights.

But, does that mean I have created a better gallery? In this case I don't think it does. I don't get the same 'buzz' as in previous builds. The important thing for me, is that this technology allows me to test, analyse and reflect and then try something different. I seem to learn something new with every build. Fantastic!







Plan of gallery, ASCII style -
_____________________
I   I   I   I   I   I   I   I   I   I
I----------------------------I
I----------------------------I
- That's how this project would have looked if I had used a type writer! Thankfully, things have moved on :)

If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.

Towards A New Museum

Towards A New Museum, is another book by Victoria Newhouse that is relevant to this project.



The book is a compendium of gallery architecture that has become so dominant over the last 40 years. It discusses galleries as diverse as the Guggennhein Museum in Bilbao, to galleries as yet unbuilt by Frank Stella (and also includes Peter Blake's ideal museum for Jackson Pollock that I have mentioned in a previous post).



The book is well illustrated and the descriptions offer insight into the architects vision and references easily missed by the casual viewer. For example, the gallery built to house the paintings of Felix Nussbaum (p. 96), was designed to reflect the spaces in which Nussbaum worked whilst he was in hiding from the germans before he was tracked down in 1944. The architectural features are based on axises tracking through local features and Auschwitz. Newhouse is partially critical of the museum and questions 'whether this particular [gallery] fulfils its function as an exhibition space as effectively as it calls forth the horror of persecution' (Newhouse, 2006).



I read somewhere that architecture was considered the highest form of art and when exposed to forward thinking and diverse galleries, as represented in this book, it is hard truth to deny.

For the purpose of this project, it offers a fresh view of gallery design and help to dispel those preconceived ideas that I am finding so hard to encourage people to do. The book discusses over 70 galleries and most of the reviews are well illustrated and include floor plans... just flicking through the pages offers up so many ideas for gallery design that push the boundaries, that are so easy to recreate or develop in VR, that will hopefully encourage boundary pushing in this new technology.

Newhouse, V.(2006). Towards a New Museum. Monacelli Press, New York. (ISBN-10: 1580931804, ISBN-13: 978-1580931809)

If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.

The Artist's Studio

I had a conversation with an artist yesterday, about the importance of the studio space. He had worked in a number of studios during his career and reckoned that each change in studio coincided with a change in his artworks. He said that he has worked in some exceptionally inspiring spaces and some very uninspiring ones. It is clear that the studio space is very important to an artist.

Links to videos and articles about artist studios...

Frances Bacon

Piet Mondrian

https://www.francis-bacon.com/artworks/studio

https://www.gautierdeblonde.com/?portfolio-item=portfolio1

https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2000/sep/10/features.review17

I wander how a VR space, given that it could be a 'virtual' extension of an artists studio, would affect their work. Would they, like Mondrian, design and utilise a space that directly reflects the style of work they produce, or like Lucian Freud, choose earthy and neutral colours and a space that does not become more important than the work (I have mentioned that sentiment in a previous blog post...as a rule?).

The Speed of Change

An observation (not worth its own blog, so I have included it here). I have got in to the habit of Googling 'VR Gallery' or VR Art Gallery' on a weekly basis and the rate of development is quite astonishing. A new gallery pops up daily.

However, I think the VR gallery has yet to find its legs as (still) most of the galleries out there are recreations of existing galleries. It seems to be taking longer than I initially thought for designers to drop their preconceived ideas about what a gallery is, and start to design spaces unique to VR. Affordable VR has been around for about three years now.

I am trying to move away from the traditional and explore new ground, but those historic and emblematic features [of a gallery] are deep seated, and even with this knowledge, I am finding it hard to design and make my attempts at new ground stick (or at least work).

If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.

An Island Gallery

Following a conversation with a final year photography student, Helen Kay about light and airy gallery spaces in which to exhibit her photographs and a passing comment about floating a gallery on water, I decided to build an outward facing island based space that is lit mostly by 'natural' daylight. I started with a single building...





...and I was happy with the initial result. However, I felt it needed expanding, to include an opposite space, so I created another island gallery...





I used the same artworks, so I could make a direct comparison between the effect both spaces has on the viewer and artwork.



The most interesting thing is, by reversing the gallery so it is outward facing, means that each piece of work has its own space! and because the viewer is looking in, means that the outside does not interrupt the interaction. The nice thing about this setup, is that one can look at the work in isolation, but not feel confined. I am not sure that one would have come to the same conclusion without being able to view it in VR (although I did think that would be the conclusion beforehand, but it is nice to have it confirmed in VR).

I am also starting to experiment with colour and in this case, I wanted to recreate the water and some of the airy tones in the artworks.

The artworks are by Helen Kay and you can view more of her work on her website: https://www.hellykayphotography.co.uk/ and Instagram: @helenkayphotography is a participant in my research and I will be reviewing a gallery that she designed and built for her work, which in part, influenced this build.

If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.

Rosie Flo's Colouring Art Gallery

For Christmas I was given Rosie Flo's Colouring Art Gallery as a present. It is a self assembled cardboard gallery. A bit of fun. However, it did get me thinking about how we plan for exhibitions, past and present and how VR relates to it.

I have used models of a gallery in the past to plan, in a fairly detailed way, how artworks will be displayed. These days, I have a much less formal approach. I will have a good idea where one or two key pieces will be sited, but I like the flexibility of being able to leave it until the beginning of the installation to work out where the rest of the works should go. Maybe VR will enable me to plan, in a more concrete way, in advance of an exhibition... it would certainly save time during installation as most of the time is spent placing the work

To come to some sort of conclusive ideas on the subject, I thought I would do a quick comparative analysis between the/a cardboard model of a gallery and a VR gallery as a planning tool. I will look at scale (as in the accurate size of the things rather than a comparison of scale), art placement and position, proportion, usability and pre-visualisation.

A cardboard model can provide a good sense of architectural scale if the gallery measurements are down-scaled accurately (i.e. 2cm = 1m and 1cm = 50cm). All the walls need to be cut to size and the images scaled down (accurately!), printed (assuming they have been photographed first) and cut out. These can be time consuming tasks, especially if the gallery has many hanging surfaces and there are lots of artworks. It can also become quite fiddly if there are a lot of small works that would potentially be printed at a tiny size. However, this is all pointless if there is nothing to illustrate the scale in real life, so one has to include scale models of people as something to relate to.



A VR gallery can also provide a good sense of architectural scale as long as the original gallery measurements are accurate. In UE4, one can convert sizes directly (i.e. 1point = 1m and 0.01 = 1cm) which is quicker than having to use a calculator for every wall, floor and doorway. Assuming that the artworks have been photographed, all images can be easily imported and sized just as simply. There is no cutting out, but there is some calculations involved in working out the height and width ratios so the artwork does not look squashed or stretched, but it is undoubtedly quicker than the model. A VR gallery does not need life sized models of people to illustrate scale because the VR experience happens at normal scale. The Oculus user is well able to perceive scale as they move through the gallery.

Both the model and VR allow one to workout art placement and spacing equally well (as long as everything is scaled accurately). A cardboard model can be fiddly, if the original artworks are small and one is never going to position works accurately and level, but it does do the job. However, VR is going to have the advantage of allowing the curator to walk through a potential set-up. If one was to try both approaches to work out the size and proportion of an artwork, then the model is going to be much more time consuming as multiple prints will be needed to be produced and cut out. It is very simple to resize images in UE4. Again, VR is going to be more useful as the impact on the viewer can by directly perceived.

Up to the point of being able to walk through a potential layout, both approaches are usable, but VR is going to make life a lot easier, because everything, from resizing to moving placements can be very simply achieved in UE4 and the effects easily measured with the Oculus headset. The plus for a cardboard model, is that almost anyone can cut and tape a representation of a gallery together. Not everyone will have the inclination or time to learn to use a 3D design programme (UE4 in my case) to create a model of a gallery!

A cardboard model does a fairly good job for pre-visualising an exhibition, especially if it is photographed from the scaled position of a visitor, but one is unable to experience the impact of the overall exhibition (on the eventual visitor) in the direct way that VR does so well.

At the end of the day, I will never completely rely on a pre-visualised model to plan an exhibition, as I like the freedom to change things around before installing (if need be). Having said that, I know my gallery well, but pre-visualisation could be a great tool for planning exhibitions in spaces I have not used before (but I will still hang on to flexibility on installation day).

If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.

Photogrammetry - first try

I wanted to give photogrammetry a go, with a view to including 3D artworks in my VR galleries. So, here is my first attempt (it is actually my third, but the results of the previous two were too bad to show here!).

I did not want to shell out a load of cash just to tryout the idea so I was restricted to free software. For this I used a combination of Meshroom and Blender.



This is the artwork I used for this test and the first thing I had to do was to photograph it from a number of angles. I did this outside, in my driveway, under an overcast day.

I exported the images into Meshroom and let it do its thing, which it does automatically (thankfully!). I imported the finished obj file into blender to tidy up and export as a file with which I could use in UE4. I dropped it into a gallery I have already developed...







The results... Considering I have never used Blender before, it's OK. From a distance, the photogrammetry model looks convincing, but close up it looks a bit (a lot!) wobbly. However, this is a new exercise for me and I know I can achieve better results. I would like to try it with a fashion mannequin as I think fabric textures, shapes and colours will suit the process better than a straight edged, shiny textured frame. Being able to view the model in VR has given me insights into its possibilities.

If you are reading this blog and feel you can add something to my research then please comment… even if you are correcting me or don’t agree with something that I say.