From Santa Barbara to the Virtual World

The original installation called “A Piece of Systems Ecology”, from the artist Martina Froeschl, is a personal exploration of the natural elements she encountered while strolling through Santa Barbara, enriched by conversations with the researchers Ben Halpern, Mona Farnisa, Justin Kadi, Marisa Morse, Erica Nielsen, Camila Poulsen Vargas and Melissa Chapman- National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis from the University of Santa Barbara, USA. 

The piece featured an animated 3D sculpture created from scanned elements of the local landscape. Visitors could interact by using QR codes printed on stones collected from the area and discover connected stories. Additionally, the soundscape reflects fragments of the topics of the interviews. For the ARTverse project we created a virtual reality version of the exhibition.

A Piece of Systems Ecology in VR

For the virtual reality version of the exhibition we designed and modelled a room, the stones from the original exhibition were reconstructed based on the visual documentation of the original exhibition, bringing the rocks from Santa Barbara to the virtual world. 

The original exhibition used QR codes to show videos in augmented reality for the visitors. In this version we developed interactive rocks that open videos with a button click. In a wall of the room a large video with audio plays in a loop. This way the ARTverse project also made a connection between the augmented and virtual reality technologies.

How to visit A Piece of Systems Ecology in VR

You can visit A Piece of Systems Ecology in the VRChat world accessible through this link:

VR CHAT World: A Piece of Systems Ecology

You can access it through the VRChat desktop application or, if you have a VR headset such as Quest, Pico, Vive or similar, you can enjoy the fully immersive experience of an art exhibition in virtual reality.

How to reuse the Exhibition World from ARTverse

The VRChat world project in Unity is available in our Git repository. It can be downloaded and reused, different videos can be watched by adding different links to Youtube videos. Other objects can be added to the scene, as well as other types of interactions. 

We also encourage you to take a look at the ARTverse Basis project Git Repository to see other types of interactive tools that have been designed for artists and art exhibitions in VR.

Virtual Reality as a Way to Document and Enlarge the Audience of Digital Art

Virtual Reality (VR) offers a powerful and immersive platform for documenting and sharing digital art with a broader audience. Artists can reproduce past art installations in immersive environments to document their work and prolong the access to their art. 

Unlike traditional exhibitions, VR allows artists to create fully interactive, 3D environments where viewers can explore artworks regardless of physical location. This opens up new possibilities for storytelling, spatial composition, and engagement. By transcending the limits of physical locations, VR also makes digital art more accessible, enabling global audiences to participate in exhibitions from anywhere on Earth.