[ISEA2019] Paper: Pablo Gobira & Emanuelle de Oliveira Silva — Art museums facing the light of reality: an approach to virtual reality inside museums

Abstract

Keywords: Art museum; Virtual reality; Immersion; Digital arts; New media art

In this article we discuss on how museums, as a knowledge institution, can achieve the public using virtual reality as an instrument for exhibitions. Nowadays, most researches are about integrating Virtual Reality (VR) into the traditional frame of a museum in order to enable a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the displayed artworks. It happens due to a narrow view of the concept of “reality”. In order to start this discussion we are going to broaden the concept of “reality”, and go beyond the most commonly used terms of real and virtual. We will study some cases applications of virtual reality in museums and the way it is understood, to then bring about the amplitude of possibilities it has beyond the common use. We will work with the most widely accepted theories on museums and based on Roy Ascott’s works we will bring a deeper discussion onto the matter of realities.

  • Pablo Gobira: Professor doctor at Guignard School of Arts and Graduate Program in Arts at State University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Research fellow and manager of Digital Preservation Services of the Brazilian Network at IBICT/ MCTI. Director of Laboratory of Front Poetics (http://labfront.tk). Editor and co-editor of the books: “The memory of digital and other issues in arts and museology” (2019); “Contemporary routes: realities of art, science and technology” (2018); “Multiple interfaces” (2018); “Post-digital features: technological art and culture” (2017); “Reflections on culture: digital books, artistic creation and contemporary reflections” (2017); “Jogos e sociedade” (2012); Walter Benjamin “Lado B” (2011) among others. Researcher of the groups: Archives Center Studies of Writers from Minas Gerais; Studies and practices of Digital Preservation. He works inn curation, creation and production in the field of relations between arts, science, technology and digital culture; as professor of frontier courses like Biological machine engineering (with professores from UFMG, UFV, UEMG and Newton Paiva); and as curator of biennial, exhibitions and artistic residencies. He is coordinator at Extension Institutional Program (UEMG): Rights to production and access to art and culture.
  • Emanuelle de Oliveira Silva: Undergraduate student at Guignard School of Arts at State University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, with specialisation in drawing. Has a scholarship in research program in Guignard School coordinated by Prof. Dr. Pablo Gobira on digital arts literacy.

Full text (PDF) p. 315-321