Jamie Toll is on a Greenpoint, Brooklyn rooftop virtually walking around three sculptures he created in the middle of the desert in Arizona, and that’s one of the big points here. That Toll’s art project, Virtual Borders Arizona, a commentary on immigration, can be seen by anyone, anywhere thanks to virtual reality in Arizona, where Toll intended it to be seen.
“It’s seeing the art in context so you know it’s where the art was designed to be placed," said Toll. "You know it’s not the same as just photography, it’s not the same as sculpture, you know it’s a new medium that we’re combining technology and art together and fine tuning that."
And actually, Toll said he purposely created this in a harsh environment so that most people would not get to see it in person, they’d have to view it in virtual reality.
Even though this project was created specifically for virtual reality, creators said they can easily see a future with lots of VR art tourism so that you could, for example, from your living room travel to Paris to see the Mona Lisa or travel to Florence to see the statue of David.
The physical installation was brought to VR by a company called VirtuEye, which works on non-video gaming ways to use virtual reality. Until now that’s primarily been through interactive views of real estate.
“I think with 2D kind of art when it’s just a plain image it’s not using the full potential of it but especially, with I think using it in a special way it's really where it can win because it’s 360 and you can get immersed and kinda it’s a new medium for the whole thing," said Ronaldas Buozis, VirtuEye.
If you have a smartphone and any one of the handful of devices that turns it into a virtual reality headset, you’ll be able to experience this artwork yourself, the Virtual Borders app for iOS and Android devices launches within just the next few days.