Virtual Art, Real Feels
I’m hearing plenty of comments that the arts, specifically
performance art, is taking a huge hit due to COVID-19. On July 24, 2020
the Sacramento Business Journal reported
the loss in the United States alone at $9 billion. In some cases, art
events just shut down with no forward-looking plans to re-open. So the
loss is incalculable. We are in the middle of the summer concert and art scene. I get it. The arts might be down. But they are NOT out.
Actually instead of “Get out there and enjoy” for art experiences, it is a case of “Get in there and enjoy.” Modify your expectations and what the art community is already doing will amaze you. Here we begin our short tour through the virtual arts scene in a pandemic.
Art & Computers: Digital Playmates
First,
I want to remind you that video games are no stranger to the arts. The
release of Civilization IV in 2005 with title song “Baba Yetu”
(The Lord’s Prayer in Swahili) by Christopher Tin was the first piece
of video game music to win a Grammy. Personally, I still find this video
very moving and I use it as my introduction to my doctoral research
topic.
Virtual art show: Apart: posters from a social distance
In
a metaplay on real world events, the organizers of this art show
challenged the contributors to make art posters to support the thoughts,
feelings, and issues of COVID-19 and social distancing.
I found
the posters to be a wonderful mental interplay of World War II American
propaganda and the COVID-19 Public Health efforts.
Sales have
ended on buying copies of the artwork, so let that be a lesson to you!
Just because it is virtual does not mean art is FREE.
You can still enter the art gallery here! [Update from 2026, it has closed.] It’s in Mozilla Hubs (WebXR) so you should just click and go. (Be
patient and nice just like you would at an art gallery, people!)
Hat tip: https://paradowski.com/
Art show: AA Earth Gallery
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Hosted in Mozilla Hubs too and still open! [Update from 2026, it is closed]
“The
project was made to mark 50 years of Earth Day, an annual event held in
support of environmental protection. All the works on display respond
to the theme of Earth and human relationships.”
Clubbing: The Music Scene
Did I mention that I went clubbing in Paris a few weeks ago? I just like the way that SOUNDS. In
all seriousness, I never left New York and I only found out about this
event a couple of hours before it started. And, she writes wincing, I
had to be late for the actual event but the DJ after some gentle nudging
played another hour just for my tribe! Yes! Do not be unnerved by all
the Santas. Remember, Santa is jolly?!?
This was the DJ who I’m not going to disclose here as a really cool VR day job.
The lesson here: Set your social media to *search* for art experiences.
Live art: SketchGroup (Use Chrome for the link)
Instead
of a shared Google doc for your next meeting, how about having an
artist live sketch your thoughts using Tilt-brush in a space that you
can re-enter? Talk about a Memory Palace.
VR Concert: Glastonbury Shangri-La music festival in Sansar
Yes,
Sansar is a specific app download. But this was simulcast to Twitch,
Beatport, YouTube, and Facebook to 4.3 million possible attendees. So,
no excuses.
I love my tweet above, I’m writing EXACTLY like I’m in
a loud event and all I can get out is yelling “MUSIC IS FUN!” while
pointing to the stage.
VR Theater: The Tempest by Shakespeare
“Starting
July 9 showings will be presented in Tender Claws’ groundbreaking
virtual theater. Tickets for The Under Presents: Tempest sell for $15
and that buys you a live performance from an actor who casts you in the
play for a show running approximately 40 minutes.”
Did you catch that? Pay your ticket price, show up at a time, and you are in the play!
“Participants
are tapped to dress up in costumes and pantomime parts of the
experience which play out as much in virtual reality as they do in the
imagination of the player. That’s a remarkable feat and exactly what makes this unlike anything else in VR right now. The Tempest is a fascinating evolution for both Tender Claws and The Under Presents.”
Suffered through all this art and really want team sports to play at home? Uhm, have you heard of paintball?
What did I miss or is still coming up?
SIMULACRA (still running!)
ComicCon at Home (running now)
Museum of Other Realities (Hosts new and running shows)
Virtual Fashion Show – July 29, 2020
There
really are NO excuses not to support the art scene right now in
virtual, online, and computer-mediated senses. It’s safe and it’s
important.
I conclude with these words from Ben Okri in his article, We Need Art More Than Ever:
“For
too long art has been seen as an extra, an add-on, something
dispensable unless it can prove its worth by numbers and quotas. It may
be that we lost sight of art’s special value because prosperity obscured
its meaning, its profound questions, and its uncanny capacity for
transcendence.
It is in the face of death that art becomes most
powerful. It was said that during the time of the Black Death in Italy,
people carried paintings through the streets to confront the plague.
Some might say that it was not the paintings themselves that were seen
as death-fighting images, but the subjects of the paintings, the
Madonnas and the images of Christ, that were being used to confront a
scale of death the people could not understand. It hardly matters which
it was: art became a weapon against the plague.”
Stay safe.
#VirtualArt
#VirtualMusic #VirtualMusicFestival #VR #VirtualReality #Sansar
#Glastonbury #LostHorizon #Civilization4 #BabaYetu #ChristopherTin
#GrammyAward #ApartPostersFromASocialDistance #AAEarthGallery
#MozillaHubs #TiltBrush #Oculus #Tempest #CannesXR #ComicCon
#MuseumOfOtherRealities #WeNeedArt #VirtualArtRealFeels
Updated images, font, and indicated a few dead links (but try Internet Archive!) on February 21, 2026.