Art curators are “unframing” contemporary art to create collaborative experiences for metaverse visitors which more closely mimic IRL experiences.
In the third annual metaverse Decentraland Art Week, held on August 24-28, curators turned to new ways to use the digital space to provide more interactive and authentic experiences of art.
The metaverse world modeled its recent virtual festival after the real biennial art event, that uses public space to show art. In-person (IRL) festival-goers can walk through the city’s large booths and working areas to connect with artists and brands outside traditional gallery walls.
Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, the events and community producer for Decentraland, reported about this year’s design concept.
“The main value of this year’s art week is to place art in spatial experiences. To achieve this, what we did is repurposing the public space in Decentraland.”
In the digital world, galleries and art exhibitions are nothing new. Digital NFT art galleries have been implemented by companies such as Spatial, and traditional art houses such as Sotheby’s are active in hosting NFT art events.
Only in Decentraland, there are six main art galleries that host popular NFT markets like Rarible, SuperRare, and KnownOrigin.
What makes this event different is how visitors interact with the art. According to the foundation, Decentraland expects significant engagement based on metrics from past events like Metaverse Fashion Week, that had 108,000 special visitors.
The quality of Metaverse events and avatars is a main topic of discussion in the industry, following feedback on quality at events such as Metaverse Fashion Week. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg lately faced criticism over the quality of avatars in his new digital experiences.
Casimiro stated that this is a top priority for the Decentraland team in developing these events:
“Our team worked hard to bring new mechanics to Decentraland so that many of these art installations are edit-free interaction.”
This can be seen in action via Opensea’s Infinite gallery, where users can stand in an interactive hall of endless animated art. As reported by the team, this is the first time such a mechanic has been used in the metaverse, and the community can use it in the repository.
As fascinating as digital art design can be, accessibility is still an issue for new users. Experts across the industry highlight education as a key factor in removing barriers to access .
Casimiro said that creating accessibility and educational components to digital events is essential to keeping users engaged.
“Eventually, we should always come out of the metaverse with real knowledge. “I strongly believe that we should use the metaverse as a tool to transfer knowledge and make it available to people.”
Interactive art galleries, poetry readings and digital performances are the following frontier in metaverse interaction. In July, metaverse infrastructure company Condense announced new tech to streaming IRL events live in the digital world.
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