Street art is not only about the piece of art, it is about the people, environment, culture, and identity of the region. Therefore, a piece of street art will be missing many components when viewed isolated from its environment. However, how can we view street art in its context if we are not able to visit the region? Students in SPAN 340 have an answer.
Street art is a direct product of the people, and the pieces often express messages that are more representative of a population than the works traditionally considered to be elements of “high culture”.
A group of students in SPAN 340: "Iberian Cultural Topics" has created a virtual reality experience displaying several examples of urban art and its influence on or from the communities the art resides in. This project serves to provide both an immersive and informative experience to individuals who are not capable of viewing these works of art in person. Furthermore, using VR, the students are also able to put someone in the shoes of a street artist, allowing them to acquire knowledge beyond that of simply viewing pictures of the art.
The project has been created with Wonda VR which is a platform to build immersive experiences with 360 photos and videos, enriched with sound, images, and interactive UI elements. According to Devesh, who is one of the student developers in the project, says "Wonda is not all too hard to use: most of what I was able to accomplish within the software came from intuition and a little bit of trial and error."
The images and videos used to build the project were captured either from Google Streetview (link to software here: https://svd360.istreetview.com/), or from a Samsung Gear 360 camera. The images from Streetview were of five different points in the urban park Tres Xemeneies in Barcelona, a well-known hub for local street artists.
Implementing these tools and technologies into the education of culture is beneficial as it accommodates for society’s general trend towards digital competency. The VR experience featuring various works of art located across Spain supplies further evidence of the meaningful and valuable role street art plays in society as well as the role of virtual reality in contextualizing knowledge and art.
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