DreamVR
Curating a Socially Engaging and Informative Virtual Exhibition via Social Virtual Reality
Curating a Socially Engaging and Informative Virtual Exhibition via Social Virtual Reality
Virtual exhibitions have long been regarded as an extension of information delivery for physical exhibitions. However, what virtual exhibitions can offer audiences as a novel experience independently from physical exhibitions has been largely unexplored. In this study, we aim to understand the promises and challenges of experiencing and curating exhibitions in VR by interviewing nine expert curators. Drawing from expert insights, we summarized a set of design guidelines to inform what we can learn and adapt from physical exhibitions when curating in VR. Then, using an autobiographical design approach, we curated an interactive exhibition in VRChat to explore novel interaction techniques. We also hosted an open tour guide in the user study to validate our design guidelines with thirty participants. Results show that our approach of curating an exhibition in VRChat provided the participants with engaging and novel experiences interacting with the exhibits and other audiences.
Recent years have seen a rise in virtual museums (VMs) with the rapid advancement of virtual reality (VR) and augmented
reality (AR). Since the emergence of web technologies, a large number of museum institutions have been distributing
information via websites as a form of VMs. While web-based VMs have been recognized as an essential form of extension of
physical museums, they fall short of interactivity and embodied experiences for audiences. However, as suggested by previous
studies, embodiment plays an integral role in engaging audiences in digital heritage.
Combining the benefits of 3DVR and social interactions, social VR refers to a set of applications where users can socialize
through VR HMDs. The booming commercialization of VR applications has led to a growing research agenda in HCI. However, to
our best knowledge, there has been no research utilizing social VR platforms as virtual exhibition venues in HCI and CSCW
research communities. In this paper, we aim to investigate three research questions (RQs):
RQ1: What are the promises and challenges of curating virtual exhibitions compared to physical exhibitions?
RQ2: What strategies do curators employ in response to the challenges of curating virtual exhibitions?
RQ3: What strategies can effectively engage audiences in virtual exhibitions?
This study consists of three phases (see Figure 1), one interview study, an autobiographical design study, and a user study. We first conducted expert interviews with nine professional art curators (E1-E9) to understand the promises, challenges, strategies of designing virtual exhibitions, and how virtual exhibitions can learn and adapt from physical exhibitions.
To understand what differences lie in the systematic framework of virtual curation compared with the curation of a physical exhibition, and what effective strategies that curators usually take to engage audiences within the virtual environment, we conducted a qualitative interview-based study with 8 groups of professional art curators (9 participants in total) as experts in the field of curatorial practice and exhibition experience.
In this section, we present our findings mainly in two folds. First, to answer RQ1, we report three themes
about the promises and three themes about the challenges of virtual exhibitions identified by the expert interviewees,
along with the strategies recommended by the interviewees to answer RQ2).
Promises:
1. Free of Physical Limitations.
2. Enhanced Experiences in Appreciating Born- Digital Artworks.
3. Creating Social Experiences via Novel Interaction Techniques.
Challenges:
1. Lack of Adaptation Strategies When Replicating Physical Exhibitions.
2. Technical Issues for Both Curators and Audiences.
3. Lack of Highlights in the Unique Benefits of Virtual Exhibitions.
Design Guidelines (DGs):
● DG1: Adopt interaction and navigation techniques similar to real life so that audiences can adapt to the 3D graphical environments with less discomfort.
● DG2: Prioritize mediums that can be best interacted with in the VR environment, e.g., VR paintings, interactive 3D models, etc.
● DG3: Make adaptations when learning from physical exhibitions, such as avoiding branching or return routes to reduce spatial disorientation in VR.
For more design guidelines, please refer to our full paper.
We recruited 30 participants, including the artists, HCI researchers and people who were interested in the VR exhibition to participate in an open event and completed our user study through posting recruitment articles on social media (e.g., WeChat and Instagram).
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Dream VR Art Exhibition
30 participants in an open tour guide.
Researchers guided the participants → Participants visited the exhibition for about 2 hours → Filled out a questionnaire to provide feedback.
(1) General Positive Comments on the Novelty and Immersion.
(2) Participants’ Favorite Features.
11/28 participants: being able to enter the VR paintings and interact with the objects in the paintings. (DG1, DG2)
7/28 participants: creative spaces where participants are transformed to be creators and able to leave comments. (DG1)
Cao, J., He, Q., Wang, Z., LC, R., & Tong, X. (2023).
CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Article 511, 1–18.
