Reception of Artworks in Physical and Virtual Reality

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the dynamic development of communication technologies are changing the forms of our everyday activities. It can be clearly observed in area of cultural participation, where emerging new patterns of cultural activity represent a serious alternative to traditional forms of participation, providing participants with, for example, higher quality and depth of experience, greater comfort, or reducing existing barriers to access to culture. In this context, the process of hybridization and the possibility of incorporating Virtual Reality (VR) into the processes of cultural participation offer particularly interesting and promising perspectives. The purpose of the presentation is to present the results of an empirical study on the differences in the reception of artworks, depending on whether the contact with them was physical or during a virtual gallery visit. The physical reception study used original graphics from the Nkrombe Series by Kenyan artist Anne Mwiti. Meanwhile, the virtual reception study was based on an exhibition of the same graphics, but in virtual form, available through VR goggles in the virtual art gallery KONKRET AR.T Gallery. The survey was conducted among students of the Department of Fine Art and Design at Kenyatta University in Nairobi under the CAPHE Project, MSCA-RISE Horizon Europe, GA No. 101086391. The empirical material obtained in the study illustrates how the same works of art are experienced in physical and virtual form and also makes it possible to compare differences in the experience of works of art depending on the form of contact with them.