Critical reflection on Frameless exhibition
Part of our virtual reality studies involves a trip to an exhibition called frame less. We arrived at the exhibition to view 4 rooms. The first room was called beyond reality Which was full of ionic artworks that explore dreams ,worlds and the surreal. We were surrounded buy these animated walls and this room was filled with a collage type of art of forest, themes, and disguised surfaces and there were mirror reflections on the floors.
I think the artist wanted the viewer to feel like they were really in the surroundings they could see and the movement of the arts to make the viewer feel like they were standing next to a moving trees or flowers. Personally it wasn‘t very immersive as it didn‘t fully submerse the viewer. I think the artist use the mirrors which were placed above and below, too create a dream like state, as it reflected you upside down or other people from weird angles, a distorted view of the environment. The mirrors on the ceiling made me feel as if there was more people in the space as someone was always reflecting into the mirrors. Thinking back to the experience I think the mirrors did give a sense of a dream like state as some dreams are often distorted in reality the mirrors did remind me of a type of dream where you just can’t quite remember where you were or maybe make out someone’s face images flashing before your eyes but you just can’t quite remember what you was dreaming about yes I think the mirrors did try to imitate that type of dreamlike state. Even though I got a sense of this dreamlike state after thinking back and analysing the environment, while I was at the exhibition I didn’t feel like it reminded me of a dream or a world. It’s pretty as it was it didn’t make me feel as if I was in a different environment it felt more like a cool hang out spot. Maybe it would have been a better experience with less people in the environment as too many viewers may cause a distraction to the sense of what the artist was trying to create. I think the mirrors Also acted as a distraction As they distracted me from the wall scenes which actually made me feel more immersed. I think the artists idea was that it would make the viewer feel connected and immersed in the experience. There were many distractions from the attraction such as areas where the surface would change reminding the viewer that they weren’t fully submersed this could be better in a virtual reality experience as it could give full coverage to the experience.
Similar to the first room, the second room was called colour in motion. There were many animated moving designed objects. The Azure Kinect body tracking System changes the motion of the objects given us the experience of pushing the objects as we walked on them. This was very immersive as we felt like we were connecting with the objects. I also enjoyed the emerging transitions of the art pieces when changing from one piece to another. I think the artist of this exhibit wanted to make the viewers connect with the Did you all move in objects in the scene I feel that the artist pulled this off very effectively I believe this was the most enjoyable of the exhibits we view that day and the viewers became quiet a must due to the fact of feeling they were connecting with the digital heart especially on the floors this cave the viewer the feeling of kicking leaves running through a leafy forest . Surround sound also matched the scenes displayed and changed accordingly to the change.
The next room of artwork was a seamlessly floating scene all around from the floors to the to the walls, given a the effect that the floors and walls were one surface. I think the artist wanted to make this a very immersive experience by giving a full coverage of the room and the audio to go along with the animated scenes I found some of the sound effects were too loud and dramatic. Even though this was a fully projected space one cannot feel fully submersed with objects animated on a wall as in real life objects are everywhere so this did draw us away from the experience and feeling immersed at times However I feel there were some moments where this exhibit in particular wet quite well where you could see shadows of other people this gave the impression of people getting washed away by the sea as their shadows would reflect low down on the walls as the animated waves moved along the scene I’m not sure if this was a lighting effect or If this was even done deliberately, for me it did add to the exhibit.