This is a continuation of the previous discussion regarding Extended Reality (XR). If you would like a better understanding of the context, I recommend reviewing the previous post.
Bjork’s “Vulnicura”
The first track from Björk's album Vulnicura is Stonemilker VR (2015). Iceland was the location of the video (McDonald, 2017). The video was shot with a single 360-degree camera by filmmaker Andy Thomas Huang. Björk dances around the audience throughout the video, often slinking up to them and making direct eye contact, eventually breaking into different iterations of herself, both of whom slowly dance around the screen. Björk worked with, amongst others, her engineer Chris Elms and another engineer, Chris Pike, who is based out of BBC Manchester and works on 3D audio projects there (Paton, 2015). After exhibiting this video at Brooklyn's Rough Trade record shop in late 2015 and seeing the public's positive response, Björk accepted offers to build more VR videos for the album's songs (Machkovech, 2019). The result was Björk’s eighth studio album: Vulnicura, which means "Cure for Wounds" (Vulnus + Cura) in Latin (Basti Menkes, 2021). The album is about Bjork's divorce, which she describes as the most traumatic experience of her life. The majority of the music is composed of string parts orchestrated by Bjork, and from the electronic artist Arca (Hopper, 2015). The experimental nature of Arca's creations, comes in handy for a VR avant-garde album. Bjork defines Vulnicura as her most labour-intensive album she has ever done because she had to mix the album multiple times in order to make it suitable for VR. (Charara, 2019). The album was premiered at "Björk Digital," an interactive augmented reality show that features panoramic video, wraparound sound, 360 virtual reality, 3D videos, VR controls and goggles that enable viewers to disconnect in order to engage with the Björk cosmos (CCCB, 2017).
Modigliani’s “The Ochre Atelier” The Ochre Atelier reimagines Modigliani's final Parisian studio, where he lived and worked in the final months of his life in 1919 and 1920 (Tate 2018). The gallery’s partnership with Vive’s Arts offers the viewers to become fully immersed in the work, using HTC’s integrated VR experience, known as Vive. Via the review of historical material as well as Modigliani's work, the artist's studio has been brought back to life. The restoration of the studio, which includes more than 60 artefacts, artworks, and materials, is based on historical and technological analysis and accurately represents the artist's living environment. Each object in the experience has been extensively studied, confirmed by art historians, and authentically modelled by 3D designers and modellers from Preloaded, a BAFTA-winning games studio (PRELOADED, 2017). The studio, its interiors, artefacts, and the artworks on display were carefully recreated over the course of more than five months of extensive research. The nine-to-ten-minute guided experience contains numerous quotations and details about Modigliani's personality, his paintings, and eventually what led to his tragic death.
HTC Vive In most XR applications, the user visualises images through glasses, headsets, video projectors or even through mobile phones/tablets, HMDs are small displays or projection technology integrated into eyeglasses or mounted on a helmet or hat. Both, in "Björk Digital” and Modigliani VR exhibition, there is the adoption of a particular type of HMD: the HTC Vive (Fig. 1.). This is a virtual reality headset created by the partnership of HTC and the technologies developed by the company Valve (Vive.com, 2011). On the helmet are allocated: a display, which envelops a 360-degree field of vision; a set of cameras; multiple sensors, such as a gyro sensor, an accelerometer, and a laser position sensor to track the head's movements, the position and the orientation in space (Arnaldi et al., 2018). At the Bjork Digital exhibition, the video Stonemilker demonstrated the use of binaural sound, in which the sound seems to move around while the consumers move their heads in the HTC Vive (Charara, 2019). Because of this, VR is not only a logical extension of the music video, but it also has a more intimate cinematic potential, making it perfect for this emotional journey in which each song representation is part of a greater whole. HTC has partnered with several museums to cultivate VR as a tool for art and learning (Virtual spatial systems, 2018). Frances Morris, director of Tate Modern, considers the collaboration with 8
Vive as a new and exciting digital experience for the visitors. Brown (2017), General Manager for HTC Vive Europe, observes that Modigliani was a pioneering force in art innovation. Similarly, the HDMDs are revolutionizing the way people experience art, as the cases of the two avant-garde artists. Chang (2017), states that the Vive Arts project, aims to advance the production and enjoyment of art using cutting-edge technologies in order to offer more high-quality, educational, creative content to more consumers and the general public around the world. In spite of this, Shaptunova (2018), points out that long-term use of VR systems can cause eye problems, nausea, faintness, and headaches. There is also a high implementation cost. The production and deployment of XR solutions and devices, as well as the devices that support this technology, are extremely expensive. However, large-scale investments by corporations like Facebook (Sochurkova, 2018) are assisting in the democratisation of EX technology. This will make EX devices like HMDs more accessible to the general public in the future.
“HTC Vive” (Arnaldi et al., 2018).