Virtual Gallery | NP3 RE:Search:Gallery | 2023 - 2024
The initial steps before Gazilla exhibition was the work I have done for NP3 RE:Sreach:Gallery as a commission. The objective was to replicate the gallery space with details in 3D space. With this virtual replica, the gallery’s idea was to initiate and establish their virtual gallery for the purpose of having either online exhibitions or slowly transferring their archive of older exhibitions in the digital 3D space.
I collaborated with Alan Ahued Naime in developing this space. I was responsible for replicating and developing the architecture of the place using floor plans and images of the empty space as references. This involved the entire process of modeling, texturing, creating materials, and, most significantly, optimizing the final result for use on the Mozilla Hubs platform, which was our main platform to showcase the work.
The main challenge during the creation process was optimization. It was necessary to lower the resolution of textures, optimize the meshes of 3D models, and bake all the realistic-looking shadows—created with Blender’s powerful render engine, Cycles—onto textures. This ensured that everything ran smoothly on Mozilla Hubs, a web-based real-time rendering engine that requires extensive optimization to present scenes that are both realistic-looking and lightweight enough to be accessed by everyone on various devices (phones, laptops, tablets, etc.).
The challenges and solutions I discovered in this pipeline were also shared in two different talks and presentation events that took place as part of Club4Ward at the Grand Theater.
Digital online exhibition at RE:Search:Gallery empty space.
For this pilot edition, they invited five artists, including myself, from their collaborative network to showcase digital works in the NP3 | GAZILLA virtual exhibition space. The exhibition consisted of two parts: the Co-creation section and a VR walkthrough in the empty main gallery space. The Co-creation section took place in the gallery's lounge area, where the audience could use a PC and a Prowise screen to walk around, interact with others, make changes, and add their own objects and designs to the space. This was followed by VR experiences in the main gallery space (the white cube), which was intentionally left empty. Visitors could walk around wearing VR headsets in the actual gallery but experience the virtual replica, accurately aligned so that the virtual walls and doors matched their real-world positions in the gallery.
A quick sketch in form of 3D animation for a bigger game project in the future.
Video Description
I used blender simple rigid body system with simple recorded animation of the cube as the effector and active collision of the scene. The canvases are instances of the JPEG images from ax710's old works textured on 3d models of canvases.
The final render I did after the experiments and made a campfire with the works. But the sketch and idea behind this final look has origins in another exhibition in my projects as part of the RE:Current exhibition at NP3.
A VR installation as part of a group show at NP3 RE:Search:Gallery
A year before I did the first sketch of the burning paintings I did a not-burning campfire VR experience. It was a group exhibition of painting and new media works. Next door to the room that I did my VR installation, there was a huge painting exhibition with several artists showing their works. what I did was a site-specific reaction to my friends' paintings and attempted a virtual installation in which I'm getting ready to make a fire with their works. This idea became the ground for the simulation and burning scene that I did eventually with ax710.
