Immersive art is a type of artistic expression where the viewer is drawn in and enveloped by the art piece. Immersion artworks can be exhibited to viewers or participants as virtual or in-person experiences. These immersive art installations stand out for providing visitors with a well-crafted, multimodal atmosphere. An immersive art installation may include a variety of noises, textures, sensations, or even smells in addition to its visual elements. For instance, MJ Caselden and Derek Hoffend used music, vibrations, and magnetism in Vibrations: A Music Experience to entice guests to investigate more profound realms of consciousness. For spectators, immersive art delivers a more immersive experience by offering a higher degree of involvement and sensory engagement. Exhibits using immersion art sometimes combine visual aspects with several senses, such as touch, vibrations, noises, and even fragrances.
Artechouse presently operates sites in Miami and New York City in addition to its 2017 opening in Washington, D.C. These state-of-the-art online galleries showcase artwork that is driven by technology and experience. The 2018 opening of Artechouse in Miami encourages visitors to engage with the displays as it combines science, art, and technology to arouse the senses. To fully immerse visitors in NASA’s cosmic data obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope, Artechouse opened a new show in the summer of 2023. “Miami’s art culture has flourished in recent decades,” said Artechouse co-founder Tatiana Pastukhova. “We saw it as an opportunity for a place like Artechouse, where we can open up the dialogue about the future of the arts and introduce people to the arts and technology.”
Atelier des Lumières, a former foundry in Paris, hosted the first digital art museum opening for Culturespaces, a French foundation that specialises in immersive art experiences, in April 2018. Barco and Culturespaces maintained their collaboration for Infinity des Lumières at the Dubai Mall. At first, this concentrated on the works of Japanese artists Hokusai and Kuniyoshi, as well as the masterworks of Van Gogh. The director of Infinity des Lumières, Catherine Oriol, stated that the attraction is “an inspiring and immersive experiential addition to the UAE‘s art and culture industry that will attract both residents and visitors from all over the world.” Culturespaces opened their first immersive art place in North America in 2022. Huge glowing pictures of works were on show in New York City’s Hall des Lumières for its debut installation.
Chicago‘s WNDR Museum is also a great immersive experience that combines art and technology to provide visitors with a multi-sensory experience in which they may see, hear, touch, and smell exhibitions. Many Innovative artists, collectives, technologists, and designers have their installations displayed throughout the area. The first and only Kusama infinity chamber in the Midwest, “Let’s Survive Forever,” by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, is one of the exhibits. With two immersive art experiences now available in San Diego and Seattle and another on its way to Boston, WNDR is growing throughout the United States. Adrian Stein’s “Quantum Mirror,” a “structural meditation on
modern human consciousness,” is one of the displays in San Diego. The museum in Seattle is home to Kusama’s “Starry Pumpkin,” a mural by Stevie Shao, an LED ring created by Patrick Ethen, and an immersive theatre that presents a carefully chosen collection of constantly changing 360-degree video. Stein’s “Hyper Mirror” and a “Light Floor” by WNDR are also housed there.
Frameless is a venue for immersive renditions of famous artworks and is London’s first permanent digital art experience. Instead of only allowing guests to view the artwork, the space fully immerses them in every colour splash and brushstroke. “We use different technologies in each of our galleries,” Frameless CEO Richard Relton told Blooloop. For the next five years, Frameless intends to debut in significant cities all around the world. The artainment attraction showcases interactive digital adaptations of renowned works by Cézanne, Klimt, Kandinsky, Monet, Canaletto, and Rembrandt. These are on display in galleries titled “The Art Of Abstraction,” “Beyond Reality,” “Colour In Motion,” and “The World Around Us.”
One of the many immersive art experiences now on show is the Van Gogh exhibition. Owing to technological improvements, an entire industry has emerged recently since the general public now wants to actually experience art rather than just observe it. Enter the universe that the Van Gogh Experience (or maybe even the Tech Lead) built with the artist, or rather, the curator. These kinds of places allow you to experience things with all of your senses at once. Nowadays, a museum visitor takes up a little area inside one of Van Gogh’s paintings instead of being a passive spectator. This is a must-see for everyone who likes art and wants to grasp the genius and creativity of one of the greatest painters of the nineteenth century.
Critics argue that by promoting an individualized fixation with the self, these immersive art shows contribute to the commodity and marketisation of art history. Proponents contend that the purpose of these profit-driven productions is to draw in viewers who would not otherwise be drawn to regular museum exhibits. Millions of visitors worldwide and the amount of people who attend the Van Gogh experience at the L’Atelier des Lumières in Paris indicate that there is a strong demand for these exhibits.
So, are these immersive art events a misanthropic, profit-driven representation of our attention-deficit society? One may contend that similar to pop artists before them, the embracing of mass culture honours the spectacle of artistic entertainment as an accurate representation of our times. It reflects a society that is consumer-focused and always on the lookout for genuine, novel experiences.
Conversely, the creators of the exhibition may have goals beyond making money. The goal of L’Atelier des Lumières is to offer art to areas that are difficult to access, as stated by the organisation that founded the organisation. On the other hand, it appears that viewers are still willing to learn through more conventional exhibition setups, given that successful runs of non-experiential art exhibitions continue to draw unprecedented numbers of visitors.
References:
- Bea Mitchell “The world’s top immersive art experiences” (2023). Immersive art experience [Online]. (Last updated on 16 October 2023). Available at: https://blooloop.com/technology/in-depth/immersive-art-experiences/ [Accessed on 3 May 2024].
- Chris Cleek “Immersive Art: What Makes an Exhibition Experience Immersive?” (2023). Immersive art experience [Online]. (Last updated on 13 March 2023). Available at: https://www.bridgewaterstudio.net/blog/immersive-art-exhibition-experiences#:~:text=Immersive%20artworks%20may%20be%20presented,with%20a%20multisensory%2C%20designed%20environment [Accessed on 3 May 2024].
- Alice Compton “What is immersive art? The story of immersive art and 5 exhibitions you can visit in 2022” (2022). Immersive art experience [Online]. (Last updated on 1 February 2022). Available at: https://www.kooness.com/posts/magazine/what-is-immersive-art [Accessed on 3 May 2024].
