Currently a work in progress, V-Art is the final project for my 4th year computer games development honours degree dissertation.

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Accessibility is important to me for various reasons and I am a fan of not only virtual reality gaming but also development of VR applications so creating this kind of experience was a no-brainer for me.

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The elevator pitch of V-Art would be:
Imagine being able to step into a Bob Ross Landscape, stand next the The Scream or see Salvador Dali’s melting clocks up close. V-Art is an interactive experience where players step into the work of various artists and explore them in virtual reality while learning more about each artist.

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The reasoning behind my choosing this kind of project was that while accessibility in gaming is becoming a far more common thing, other forms of entertainment aren’t keeping pace, one such form is the art world. Typically those looking to view art have to visit physical locations at sometimes great-expense for what can seem like a very underwhelming experience, for instance, to view the Mona Lisa, arguably the most famous painting in the world, you would have to visit The Louvre in France where you may have to wait for up to 2 hours, are directed to a room to view the 2 foot high painting from a distance of over 3 meters with a time limit of around 30 seconds before being move on again.

Your other option may be to visit galleries online, generally very unintuitive “Google Maps” style affairs where you are treated to a 360 degree scan of the corridors and rooms with little to no control over how close you can get to any of the art and absolutely no interaction or sense of presence.

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V-Art was designed from the outset to address these problems allowing people from anywhere in the world access to art while expanding upon the works to take them beyond the 2D canvas, reimagining them as the 3D scenes they depict and allowing users to experience them from within.