Reflection on “Virtual Art”

Analyze how the psychological distance is similar to or different from in the experience of paintings, sculptures, plays, movies, television, games, or VR. In addition, describe how those experiences differ in terms of immersion and critical reflection.  

Before talking about the similarities and differences between the art forms, I would like to write down one word that I learned from the article: the medium. The meaning of “medium” is an intervening substance through which something is achieved, so the artistic medium thus means how an artwork is being created. Based on the article, we can summarize that most traditional arts were created in the real medium, such as painting on paper and walls, sculptures with metal and earth, or the performance created by humans. While virtual art is created by the new virtual medium, that is the computer.

The real and virtual mediums cause different psychological distances. For the artworks that happened in the real world, people have less psychological distance, because they can interact with the real thing, such as touching the sculptures, or observing the lines on the paintings (although in the museum this is prohibited). While for movies and television, people can easily tell that the video is the video, not the things that happened in the reality, which builds more psychological distance between people and the artworks. As for VR, it becomes the middle art between reality and video. Artists try to use VR to create a realistic environment for people to interact with, but right now people can only use eyes and ears to interact, rather than really touching or feeling it, so that people can still easily tell the differences between VR and reality. But watching a movie with VR technique can still provide more reality for the audience than only with 2D video.

And talking about immersion and critical reflection, I assume that this should depend on how to define reality. Because we usually define the world we live in as reality, although the paintings and movies are 2D art, as we view them in the real world, these exhibitions can provide immersion for us, and VR art cannot. But if we define reality as creating an immersive environment for the audience, maybe VR is better than others, for it can create the 3D distance through technique, while 2D painting and videos can only provide a flat version. Even the 3D painting can only be seen as 3D through a certain angle, but VR means creating an environment that has the distance itself and people can see the 3D version from all angles.