Immersive Environments, VR, AR in Ukrainian Contemporary Art of The Recent Years

Abstract

The article is devoted to the scientific problem of theoretical elaboration and contextualization of immersive environment realized in the physical space of a gallery or museum, in VR and on the new virtual platforms on the Internet, as well as in hybrid space, in the augmented and mixed reality of the 21st century. The aim of the research is to identify the peculiarities of the formation of the immersive environment and of the practices of VR and AR projects creation in Ukrainian contemporary art in recent years. The task is to elaborate the theoretical bases of the development of immersive environments and VR, review and analysis of projects that use the digital technologies in order to create an immersion and AR. The methodology of the study consists in theoretical and field research of immersivity and in the author’s experiments development. The main method is a comprehensive and systematic approach to the development of the theory of virtuality, visual and photometric methods, analysis of concepts, spatial structure and technological features of online VR platforms and artistic realizations. The concept of sensorium is involved, which describes the feeling, perception and interpretation of information about the world around. The peculiarities of creating immersive environments in physical space in the projects «MetaPhysical Time-Space», «Refraction of Reality», «Living Energy» were explored (to be included into the national art discourse), as well as in VR in the frame of VR-festivals, such, as Carbon Media Art Festival, «Frontier» and «Virtuality» that serve as a testing ground for the development of new technological art. The possibilities of new online VR platforms, such as Mozilla Hubs, WebXR, AltspaceVR, artspaces.kunstmatrix, Cryptovoxels, Transmadatac Virtual Museum, are analyzed. The practice of creating VR projects on platforms on the Internet: Artefact Chornobyl 33 and Artefact Chornobyl + MADATAC, «VR Collider» and «Genesis» are considered as case study. Drift from immersive environments in physical space to virtual reality has been detected. The multi-vector nature of AR projects and different types of connection with book publishing, public art objects, contemporary sculpture and urban practice have been revealed.