Van Gogh Experience
Today Jude, Kate and I went to the Van Gogh virtual experience. It's had mixed reviews and I can see both sides of the argument but personally I really enjoyed it.
Having been to this experience now I don't know that I'd go to one for another artist touting as the same "virtual experience" idea. While something like the Secret Cinema works well as a format across various genre I think this "virtual experience" for artists is quite limited.
I certainly learned a lot about Van Gogh and to me this was more engaging than a straight exhibition but there's only so much that can be done.
The event was about immersing the visitor in the art. There were no original pieces and certainly having seen this now I'm more likely to go visit the museums that do hold the originals.
Stopping short of having character actors playing the artist there were lots of quotes from the many letters which Van Gogh sent mainly to his brother.
The app which you're encouraged to load has all the text from the walls of the event, this along with your own searching for the reference pictures is very educational.
The VR experience within the event was very well done. The exhibition uses Quest 2 headsets, exactly the same as the one I own. It's VR with various axis of freedom, more a 360 video. You sit on a stool and are taken through a pre-set path which emulates the environments where each of the famous paintings would have been taken. For those not familiar with VR the start can be a little disorienting but once the viewer is "outside" then the journey is easier to accept.
The projection hall is an artistic experience in itself which I suspect is quite common to all these forms of tour. The famous paintings are re-imagined, animated and extended around all the walls, ceiling and floor. Lasting just over half an hour I highly recommend that if you do visit then you use the provided deck chairs or lay on the floor! Sat on one of the benches, constantly looking up, I ended up with a stiff neck.
The London experience was housed in a building near Spitalfields Market. As we'd driven over to East London it made sense to also tour the market.
The huge choices in food at the market warrant a blog post of their own!
Yet again I regret not having taken my 360 camera with me.
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Tags:Van Gogh, VR, Virtual, Experience, London, Spitalfields
This update was first written by Darren Wall
on Saturday 23rd Apr 2022.
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