Since 2020 and the closing of cultural venues, initiatives aimed at enriching or even replacing physical exhibition spaces abound. Undoubtedly inspired by the proliferation of virtual galleries, Michael Scherrotter, Microsoft Artistic Program Director and art enthusiast, envisioned the possibility of creating his own virtual gallery at home that could be accessed by any Internet user.
Computer world announces in Video Inspired by “The growing interest [des gens] For the metaverse, virtual reality, and NFT”, to Allowing anyone with an art collection to show the world by creating a beautiful gallery.
customizable metaverse
platform gallerist It can be an extension of Sims Dedicated to Art: Owners of these virtual galleries choose space layout, display of their work, ceiling height, and texture of wall, floor and ceiling surfaces in two dimensions.
The works will be imported from the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom catalog. Once the work is installed, informational entries (name of work, date and place of production) can be added, as well as “stickers” applied to each work in order to provide thematic tours. Thus the Internet user can roam among the works grouped under a chosen topic.
Virtual audiences can walk around the exhibition using their mouse or their fingertip on a mobile phone or VR headset. Clicking on the works allows you to find yourself in front of it lit. The 3D works are immersively visible and the map allows to view the places where the works are being viewed “in real”, outside the metaverse.
A (very) simple platform?
Galeryst offers many programs. The free program allows the opening of a virtual gallery presenting 80 works. The “Artist” program costs around €3.55 per month and opens five galleries presenting 5,760 works.
The most expensive “museum” program, costs approximately 200 euros per year and allows the opening of thirty galleries presenting 96,480 works. The paid versions also offer the ability to add links, as well as audio descriptions generated by artificial intelligence to facilitate access to the virtual gallery for visually impaired people.
Michael Sherotter says he wants to help “All artists should create beautiful 3D virtual exhibitions and share their work with the world.”. A commendable initiative – as long as its democratic inclinations and apparent simplicity do not open the door to the possibility of plagiarism and deception.
