Falmouth University // Art Eye VR ®
Falmouth University is one of the UK’s top creative institutions, dedicated to pushing the limits of traditional boundaries and disciplines. With professional facilities, teaching excellence and a vibrant community, it is not afraid to do things differently.
Consultancy Service & Site Visits / 3D Virtual Walk-Through Exhibition Tours / Interactive Tagging / Promotional Materials
Art Eye is honoured to be an accredited supplier to Falmouth University, working recently with its excellent School of Fine Art in order to capture the latest ‘Miniatures’ exhibition as a 3D virtual walk-through tour. Returning for its second year, the exhibition asks students to consider miniature-making in relation to their own contemporary practices.
As explained in the wonderful gallery texts by the show’s curator, senior lecturer in Fine Art Dr Simon Clark;
"Miniaturisation opens a door to a strange space of playful and inquisitive absurdity, in which a multitude of human and more-than-human ideas can be channelled and encountered anew."
Through Art Eye’s new VR service, we were not only able to increase the show’s reach and runtime by translating it into an immersive VR walk-through experience but also we were excited to invite Fine Art students – many of whom are fast approaching graduation – to consider how their practice might itself be translated in order to exist in the extended digital sphere, exploring cutting-edge ways to present, document and communicate their own story of art to a much wider audience.
By seeing their physical exhibits digitally linked to close-up images, texts, videos and more, students were able to sample a different perspective on their work, in order to understand how it might be documented and experienced in the new exhibiting reality.
Top image: courtesy Falmouth School of Art, all other images Art Eye VR
“Art Eye transformed our week-long Miniatures exhibition into an enduring digital presence. Online visitors can wander around the virtual space smoothly and intuitively. The software moves seamlessly between the macro and the micro, allowing guests to take in the ‘feel’ of the whole room before moving in for a closer view of particular artworks.
But the digital exhibition doesn’t simply document the analogue; it provides a unique virtual experience for the viewer. A network of digital tags embedded in the user interface opens up a raft of further links, enabling the exhibition to function as portal into an expansive field of connected, contextual information.
Working with Art Eye has pushed our students to think creatively about exhibiting their work virtually, and has enabled them to seek out new audiences long after the ‘analogue’ show comes down.
Jen is a complete joy to work with. First and foremost, foremost, she is a lovely person. As a practicing artist, Jen has an intelligent visual sensibility, immediately tuning into and responding to the nuances of every new environment she encounters. She is endlessly curious, and takes the time to nurture a sensitive relationship with the art pieces she is working with. She matches this with a consummate and easy professionalism, making the scanning-process completely relaxed and stress-free.
Because Art Eye embraced the subtleties and complexities of our project from the outset, the finished virtual tour feels entirely sympathetic to – and dynamically synergetic with – the original exhibition.
Dr Simon Clark, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Falmouth University