From my background and research experiences, I observed a common issue contemporary artist descendants face regarding inheritance; the preservation and promotion of their art collections and archives. Art education popular among the second generation, and is predominantly found in online museums. Using this as a framework, I began to think about how I could transform and extend the experience from a third generation perspective, adding considerations for user experience and feelings, to create breakthroughs and innovations.

I observed problems faced by artist’s descendants, and by analyzing existing online museums, these issues can be summarized in three points.

• Presentation, restoration and reconstruction of historical documents of artists
  Descendants of accomplished artists often have on hand many artworks collections and historical files. With the advent of digital remote technology, the problem becomes: How to transform static artworks and a massive accumulation of historical documents in different stages of deterioration into a format that is easily accessed and clearly understood by contemporaries who want to undertake deep learning?
  
• The storytelling of online museums
• New generation demand
  Online museums often provide 2D and 3D virtual tours, typically simulations of an existing location, including still images and videos that are panoramic. However, the path and location of static scenes and the projects within cannot be controlled smoothly. Also, their 360-degree videos offer only pre-recorded movements. Without smooth movement control, such an inflexible experience is counterintuitive to seamless art storytelling

The navigation menu in this design features non-linearity, letting users enter any of the six spaces in the learning order they prefer. They might encounter others to share experiences, discuss via messages about what they learned, or go back to the main hall to chat with others. The inspiration comes from my research on Roland Barthes ‘s theory of the Ideal Text and The Death of the Author.

Users can click on any artwork floating on the timeline to enter the context-based story of the artist to understand important events in the artist’s life, the transformation of the course, and the backstory of that particular work. The timeline includes a theme context based on the content of each artist’s historical data to filter materials and plan themes.

Through detailed research and review of historical materials, I recreated the artist’s studio at the time 100 years ago in VR, which is completely different from now. This is the fastest and most direct way to deliver the understanding of the artist and the paintings in historical and social context, getting users really close to the details and the ‘feelings’.

I recreated the scene at the time the artist painted his artwork – The Composition of Mountains, so the users can know what was beyond the painting and what happened when the artist worked on his creation. Being immersed in an artist’s world provides another way of connecting through emotion. Users can feel a connection that is more visceral, that they cannot otherwise access through reading a textwall.

Using oil painting as an example, I learned through research that the important points making artists unique are the medium of oil paintings, the different brands of oil paint, and the stacking of brushstrokes. This is an important channel to understand the artist’s paintings.

To achieve effective deep-learning and for research use, this design enables users to “enter” the paintings in VR, and actually feel the texture, brushstrokes and color composition of the works, with the guide analyzing the artist’s techniques and applications. Reverse learning is used here to learn why they had chosen to use pens and color grades in this way. An intensified aesthetic experience and enhances art appreciation.

This allows users to simulate the artist’s painting style in the restored art scene to feel the artist’s emotions and state of mind at the time. They can either follow the original brushstroke guide lines or create their own path. The data of material composition is provided for research. By using what they just learned and the materials the artist once used to create their own masterpiece, users can reflect their sense of identity and thus achieve a strong sense of participation and accomplishment.

To preserve the important viewing context of the artworks, a virtual exhibition space was built. This allows users to freely observe their favorite works and review the content after learning. Clicking on the painting in the exhibition space gets users back to the timeline for reviewing; the continuing learning experience is complete and is not cut off.

To boost user motivation in learning and to maximize the ‘connection’ between the user and the artist, an artist’s virtual character is designed here. Users can choose to ask questions about the artist (from a Q&A set), or accept the artist’s challenge. He will ask you questions related to his work or himself. Correct and incorrect answers will cause the artist to have interesting and different reactions. This game-like interaction design can also increase learning effectiveness.

In this design, I created bonus system in two ways. One is that when users complete the challenge with all correct answers, this will lead to artists’ cute reaction and unlock a little secret of the artist himself. The second is that when users complete a creation of their own masterpiece and upload, some cool materials such as snow and fire brushstroke will be unlocked and can be used in later creation.

To solve these problems, I began with literature review, and investigated existing examples of digital experience related to arts, exhibitions, and education. Through the relevant theories I found that Virtual Reality (VR) technology could aid in information recall and the effectiveness of learning, especially for distance learning. This provided me opportunities to facilitate the interactions and connections between users and the artwork’s contents.

As a result, I decided to create an immersive VR product that works more comprehensively, and therefore better, for users to understand the context of art. Considering approachability and familiarity, I have chosen the artworks and documents of Artist Zhanqihua as my example due to my family background.

What users need and expect from the technology?

It is essential to present an “ambience” as a part of an immersive experience – a new experiential sensation.

I investigate some well-known combinations of VR in museum exhibitions.

• ‘Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass’ as part of Leonardo da Vinci Exhibition (2019) in the Louvre, allows users to explore painting details such as the textures seen through each paint layer. It also includes a virtual Mona Lisa, bringing the painting to life.
• ‘Hold the World’ (2018) in the Natural History Museum, an educational VR experience that Sir David Attenborough teaches you face-to-face about the important animal facts while handling or resizing the objects.
• In the Modigliani retrospective in Tate Modern (2017/18), visitors are immersed in a 3D rendering of the artist’s Paris studio.
• a VR exhibit (2018) in The National Museum of Finland allows people to interact with the painting The Opening of the Diet 1863 by Alexander ll through speaking with the characters depicted inside.

These all show VR’s potential to enhance museum exhibits. However, use is currently limited to a single exhibit, often focusing on only a few aspects of an artist. What if we were to design a VR museum where the complete exploration of the artist’s life and philosophy were accessible? How should we apply such a design and make further breakthroughs?

I interviewed local Artists’ Descendants and conducted 5 expert interviews with professionals in the field of museums and VR, gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges they encountered, and sorted out two personas based on this. Following this, I Interviewed 15 targeted users, the Novice Art Learners, about these challenges and their needs.

I translated the insights to 3 needs of my targeted users and later 3 ‘how might we’ questions.

• How to get Alice closer to the artist’s frame of mind in context of creative thinking, and understand the backstory, letting her experience the same feeling as the artist?
• How to create a design that lets Alice easily understand the medium and materials the artists used, and use them in her own artwork?
• How to effectively facilitate and motivate Alice to really achieve deep-learning?

I explored and brainstormed for solutions based on these HMW questions, using an empathy map to evaluate and prioritize them by focusing on impact and feasibility.

• App Map helped me to understand the overall information architecture of the app, and guided me to better install new features in my design.
• User Flow helped me to have a clearer image of the app’s structure and functions as a whole before laying out wireframes, and to identify better ways for guiding users

Social VR – According to the expert interviews, one of their challenges is social interaction. The social VR is not fully developed in this design due to the time constraint. I plan to further enhance and develop functions and mechanisms allowing users to better communicate and interact, ask questions, engage in discussion, receive feedback, and have opportunities to exchange thoughts and network with people sharing the same interests.

Personal Expressions – To enhance users’ engagement and allow for more personal expressions, I look to design an “My Artworks Exhibition Space” platform within this product so users can show their own masterpiece and get feedback from others. They can also enter others’ exhibition space to look for daily inspiration.

Sharing Experiences – In the Art Gallery, users should be able to share the artworks they like with their friends, and have saved lists of their preferred artworks. This function might be accomplished by clicking on a ‘favorite’ button set next to the artwork, creating a mixed experiences of a 2D interface and 3D virtual environments.

“Body Swapping VR Experiences” – Get into the artist’s shoes to experience the events she encountered; or further develop into social uses to make people “act”.