The Experience And Aesthetics Of Virtual Reality Art

Virtual reality technology has been widely used in many fields,especially in arts and cultural&creative industries.Though much interest has arisen in this technology because of the powerful sensation of being elsewhere that they create,there are few discussions focusing on the relationship between virtual reality and art.Hence,the research aims to explore the values of virtual reality on art.First,this thesis summarizes the types of virtual reality art,which can be found in the entertainment industry such as film industry and video game industry.Then the thesis concerns the characteristics of the virtual reality art from the perspective of artistic aesthetics.Last,the thesis proposes critical reflections on the integration of virtual reality technology with art works.The thesis includes four parts.First,the introduction presents the research background,which aims to establish the significance of research and put forward the problems.The second chapter reviews the development history of virtual reality technology and presents many cases for the experience types of virtual reality art work,then outlines several relevant experience characteristics which we believe are essential to the research:educational experience,entertainment experience and social experience.Based on the analysis of last two chapters,the third chapter summarizes three types of aesthetic characteristics of contemporary virtual reality art works:nonphysical aesthetic characteristic,hyper-reality aesthetic characteristic and nonlinear aesthetic characteristic.The fourth chapter puts the relevant virtual reality art work as the main research objects,mainly focusing on Jean Baudrillard's"simulacra theory" which believed that the simulacrum is never what hides the truth-it is truth that hides the fact that there is none.Standing at the perspective of cultural consumption,mass communication and industrial economy,it explores the functions and values of virtual reality art.The main conclusions of this thesis are as followed:(1)as one kind of new media,virtual reality is penetrating into the field of arts.With the help of virtual reality technology,the distance between audience and art works is narrowing.(2)The applications of virtual reality technology greatly enhance the audience's interactive experience with art works,and also broaden the ways to create art works.(3)The involvement of virtual reality technology on creative industries also took some negative function on arts thought it really plays a positive role on creative industries.