Tag: Virtual Reality

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Metaverse Exhibition at Biennale Arte 2022

The 59th International Art Exhibition (Biennale Arte 2022) runs from 23 April to 27 November 2022. The main venues of the Biennale are Giardini and Arsenale. In the northern part of Arsenale, visitors will find many rooms with screens showing art projects around and from the Metaverse. The “1st Annual METAVERSE Art @VENICE”, an exhibition conceived by Victoria Lu, a famous art critic and curator of the Chinese artistic world, opened with gEnki, an interactive exhibition that exploits the potential of the Internet and virtual reality. “The exhibition offers a new model of ‘decentralized autonomous curatorship’, exploring various innovative and always different exhibition methods using all the main features of the ‘DAO’ (short for Distributed Autonomous Organization), therefore crowdfunding, co-construction, interconnection of platforms, high level of decentralization, all adapted to the curational concept.” (Flyer gEnki) The exhibition is very inspiring and shows how the Metaverse could become if it would not only follow commercial considerations. More information via annualmetaverseart.com.

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Virtual Reality for Cows?

Various media claimed in November 2019 that there would be very special experiments with cows in Russia. There are pictures circulating showing an animal wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset. This one could reduce anxiety and increase milk yield if it would show a pleasant environment – that’s at least the media’s assumption. But, according to The Verge, “it’s not at all clear whether this is a genuine trial or an elaborate marketing stunt” (The Verge, 26 November 2019). At the moment, there is hardly any evidence as to whether VR would work for cows. There is no doubt that it makes sense for humans, at least in the context of marketing. They could wear VR glasses to see a landscape with cows. They would then believe that most cows have a good life. But this good life does not exist. Cows suffer from what you do to them – some more, some less. “At the end of the day, what we can say is that someone took the time to make at least one mock-up virtual reality headset for a cow and took these pictures. We don’t need to milk the story any more than that.” (The Verge, 26 November 2019)