The Promise of Art in the Metaverse
One of the biggest advancements digital technology has contributed to the art world is the ways in which we are able to observe the art itself. For the vast majority of the history of art, in order to view artworks you had to physically be present in the room with it, having it go straight from the art itself to the viewers eyes. Digital technology has made it so this is no longer the case. People can even purchase art nowadays without ever touching a physical copy through the very successful advancements of NFTs, or Non-fungible tokens. The creator of the newly rebranded “Meta,” Mark Zuckerberg, has decided to create a new virtual world which people can enter through either Augmented or Virtual Reality and live out digital recreations of activities from our daily lives like concerts and socializing. Although this is a program that was created by the maker of Facebook, a social media application, major establishments within the art world such as Sotheby’s has seen the vast opportunities this new virtual space could offer to the display and auctioning of art. The high-end auction house has announced the launch of their new sales platform within the Metaverse featuring curated NFT’s by expert art curators. The company has already sold more than $70 million worth of digital art. To me, the coolest development in displaying art in this way of entering a digital reality is the ability artists have to bring their art to life with viewers actually being able to virtually get “sucked into the painting.” That establishes an entirely new level to the power of art. Being able to enter the world of paintings like Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” would be unbelievable for viewers. I am so excited for there to be new way for us to interact with artworks. Virtual worlds like the Metaverse have created an entirely new arena for the art world to exist in and I am extremely eager to see where the incredible advancements that are still to come will take us as artists and art viewers. I definitely believe everything we are seeing now is only the beginning and advancements like these will certainly shape the future of digital art in terms of its creation and how its perceived by viewers.
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