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! 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
Hosted in Mozilla Hubs too and still open!
“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.
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