New Realities for Galleries
You’re not obligated to be an early adopter of expensive VR tech, but make sure you’re prepared for it to become as ubiquitous—and necessary to galleries—as the JPEG is today.
Given the promise of VR and AR for the future, what should your gallery invest in now to be part of the conversation? Creating VR/AR content is definitely a long-term investment, but well-executed content can also help to generate enthusiasm and press for your gallery—and it’s not as hard as you might think. Here are our recommendations:
Today
Develop 360° content. This can be as simple as capturing a panorama with a smartphone and uploading it to your gallery’s Facebook page; this technique allow users to interact with the photo by clicking and dragging on a desktop or moving their phone around to view different parts of the scene. 360° content can be thought of as VR-lite—it’s accessible to anyone and provides an extra way for visitors to interact with your gallery’s content.
This Year
Consider purchasing a dedicated 360° camera, which will cost $200–$300 and can lead to some incredible visuals.
This video was shot by Artsy’s social media team at the aforementioned Kusama exhibit, and while this particular clip isn’t designed for use with VR viewers, such content can be created with the same camera. We used an
Insta 360 Nano, a camera that can be easily attached to an iPhone for uploading and sharing.
The
Ricoh Theta S and SC are also good options; both shoot excellent 360° photo and video, which the only differences being that the S can record longer videos and can stream live content. 360° photos can be easily shared to Facebook, and videos can be
uploaded to Vimeo or
YouTube and can be watched with VR headsets.
Next Year
Connect with other galleries who are doing VR well and consider incorporating it into future exhibitions—that could mean working with VR artists or creating content yourself. For example,
Paul Kasmin Gallery’s recent
Naturalia exhibition included a VR artwork alongside works on paper and canvas, pictured below. Exploring other gallery’s programs will help you figure out what might be practicable for your gallery.
It’s also worth keeping an eye on what’s happening in VR outside the art world, and make sure to consider the unique ways in which other organizations are using it to wow (and woo) their target audiences. Last year, Audi unveiled
virtual showrooms that would allow car-buyers to customize every aspect of a car and view it rendered in real-time through an HTC Vive headset—an experience very much in line with the company’s branding and customer base.