Technologically Immersive Art: An Insatiable Industry or an Invigorating Novelty?

Over the past 60 years, the art world has seen a shift towards incorporating different types of technologies in various artistic media. With these new developments in modern art, there has been a rapid evolution in the perception of what constitutes art. Due to the interactive nature common to technological and digital art, viewers can become part of the art itself, as the immersive installation manipulates viewers’ experiences with the works themselves, revolutionizing what it means to interact with art. This new era of exhibits is not necessarily something to be considered art but is merely an exploitation of works for profit.

Contrary to recent news, this developing genre of art goes beyond showy recreations of classic works — The Mattress Factory, for example, is a contemporary art museum in Pittsburg, Pa. intent on supporting artists interested in experimentation with various media. It is here that one artist, Doreen Chan, developed the idea of “social-practice,” which looks like Chan facilitating therapeutic discussions among participants. Such types of immersive, technologically oriented art were designed with the viewers’ experience in mind, pushing the boundaries of what constitutes art.

The attention garnered by art that intertwines both immersive and technological practices is quite renowned. Virtual reality has played an important role in this artistic revolution. Popular museums such as The Louvre, Tate Modern, and The Smithsonian have embarked on a journey of incorporating VR into their viewers’ experiences — as seen in the Louvre’s “Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass.”

With the exponential growth of the VR market, it's no wonder that people have flocked to these exhibits by the millions. To prove the resilience of this trend, the art market increased dramatically and recovered from the intense drop in sales caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in only one year. This quick recovery suggests that a relationship between immersive art and technology may be a longstanding one in the future of the art world.

In the past ten years, immersive and interactive exhibits have been popping up in major cities across the United States. In Boston, the WNDR Museum has interactive and technological exhibits including “Light Floor” and “INSIDEOUT.” The “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” boasts a 20,000-square-foot digital recreation of the famed artist’s works in multiple cities across the United States. These exhibits are described as a new way of experiencing art, claiming to “awaken and evolve with human interaction” and “expand the possibilities of art” with a confluence of immersive and technological elements.

Art museum attendance is slowly recovering from the drop in numbers due to the Covid-19 pandemic — over half of museums report the same or higher general attendance in 2023 than in 2019. In the United States, Lighthouse Immersive — another company producing immersive exhibits — filed for bankruptcy in 2023. In February, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, on the other hand, saw its highest recorded number of visitors with the technologically immersive “Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise” exhibit. While both traditional Western art museums and immersive, technological art exhibits tend to struggle on their own, when merged, the effect is astonishing, as seen with the Musée d’Orsay’s digital exhibition.

The evolution of art is ever-present, and the art world could see more successful artistic innovations that go beyond exhibits like that of the Musée d’Orsay in the future. While the tech industry is undoubtedly booming, one has to wonder whether this sudden focus on immersive art is due to creative innovation and artistic provocation, or just because it’s new.