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Digital Experience in Art and Identity: The Metaverse calls

Conference Paper · June 2022

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Tula Giannini Jonathan Peter Bowen

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 DIGITAL EXPERIENCE IN ART AND IDENTITY:
THE METAVERSE CALLS
Tula Giannini Jonathan P. Bowen
School of Information School of Engineering
Pratt Institute London South Bank University
New York, USA London, UK
giannini@pratt.edu jonathan.bowen@lsbu.ac.uk

Abstract – The rapid global rise of immersive digital experience at exhibitions and museums
sheds light on the intense need for deep engagement with art and the emotions that it projects and
the stories it tells. With social isolation imposed by COVID, during more than two years and
counting, human digital identity is evolving as digital experience moves to the heart of daily life,
at home and at work, being often interchangeable. This digital paradigm shift in human activity
leaving a lacuna in face-to-face engagement is increasingly being filled by digital art which we see
can deliver immersive and emotional digital experiences. With the metaverse on the horizon and
fast gaining ground in developing its platform to support virtual life in 3D as part of Internet 3.0,
especially VR, AR, MR, AI, and NFTs, we wonder how this emerging phenomenon will change
life as we know it, as the metaverse seems positioned at the epicentre of a definitive shift to digital
experience during COVID and far beyond. Already, investors are buying up the metaverse
landscape and creating the tools humans will need to freely participate. This portends an exciting
future with new opportunities for digital artists, technology innovators, and entrepreneurs to
create virtual multidimensional and multimedia spaces for people to engage their digital identity
in digital experiences. Time to create your avatar - let the games begin.

INTRODUCTION

As we move from a 2.0 to a 3.0 digital environment simulating 3D space amplified by VR

(Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), MR (Mixed Reality) [3], and NFTs (Non-Fungible
Tokens) [16], life is entering a digital universe of light and colour, movement and interaction,
experienced through human digital identity and avatars, a world only somewhat familiar to
most humans. As digital tools become more powerful and easier to use, participation in the
“metaverse”, or similar conceptual model platforms will be broad and inclusive and attract
global participation [8]. This sets the stage for digital art to flourish while more broadly
defining what is means to be an artist as we define a new digital era where digital is the medium
of creativity across all media, a means of communication, at the core of human identity, and
broadly the tools for work and play.
Most likely, by 2023, we will enter the metaverse, a turning point demarcating the 21 st
century’s defining moment of a new way forward, enabling fresh opportunities for many more
participants across the arts and performing art and, in practice, all disciplines and fields. From
a darker perspective, AI (Artificial Intelligence), algorithms, ML (Machine Learning), and
robots are already assuming or sharing our work, and in some cases eliminating whole fields
dominated by repetitive work. With streaming and subscriptions, will people still go to the
cinema or to the library? The latest entry into the digital art space is the wildly popular
immersive exhibitions which unexpectedly, are having a lasting impact on museums, as they
recognize the need to take public response seriously. They address the expression of the human
desire to be connected and participate in meaningful ways, as we emerge from the global
pandemic, with the human need for deep emotional experiences magnified.
 The notion of the metaverse moves us from a 2D informational digital world to the promise
of a 3D 360° immersive interactive and participatory ecosystem, to a place where the physical
world will be embedded in the metaverse and vice versa. A conceptual model that makes for a
revolution, as we experience the flow of human activity between physical and virtual worlds,
each enriching the other. We anticipate that artists and creators inhabiting a universe both
physical and meta, portends to be a boon for the arts.
The billions of dollars being invested in building the metaverse, are paving the way for the
intense development of digital tools that will advance making and experiencing art across all
facets of the world of arts and culture, and we are already seeing the fruits of digital innovation.
Digital tools are not only becoming more powerful, but also more intuitive, so that for users,
the focus shifts to creativity on what you can make and produce, where digital tools and devices
are integrated and have a natural feel [4][5]. Over the past two years, the changes in daily life
caused by COVID (e.g., see Fig. 1), forcing retreat into digital life, have deeply impacted the
human psyche as the world sought refuge in their digital devices and Internet life, still a 2D
experience [12][13][14].
Emerging from this ongoing digital experience, like digital warriors, we see digital light at
the end of the tunnel that has forced change and the breakup of legacy systems, old fashioned
ways of doing and thinking. Although turbulent at times, this is ushering in a new age where
humans working with their digital counterparts, whether robots, chatbots, or AI systems, will
have gained more powerful individual and collective digital means of making and doing,
experiencing, and expressing. Yes, old-style repetitive work is going away – no tears shed –
enabling us to be more human and creative.

Can Digital Love Last

by T. Giannini

When the pandemic ends Have I left reality

will we still be lovers Caught in virtuality
and friends No similarity
So much time has passed between now and then
Can digital love last Who am I
and when
Sadness fills my heart will this end
being so far apart Just pretend
No end in sight Fig. 1. Man and woman on self-
Just a lonely night Is human life really real isolation quarantine during the
without you Can it prevail coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, 18
Can I exist March 2020. Wikimedia Commons,
In heart and mind Can I persist https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Self-
our love Can digital love last isolation_(Coronavirus_-_COVID_19-20).jpg
one of a kind I ask –
Can’t find You
my way back
Lost track
of where
we were
Immersive Experience Exhibitions Attract Millions Globally

The late 19th and early 20th century period is when our heroes of immersive art were active,
most prominently, the impressionist and post-impressionist painters, Claude Monet and
Vincent Van Gogh, the symbolist poets, Stéphane Mallarmé and Arthur Rimbaud, and the
composer, Claude Debussy, founder of Impressionism in music, featuring chromaticism and
colour heard in his ground-breaking composition La Mer (see Fig. 2). From their revolutionary
ideas in art and music that shocked the academy, to the opening of the 20th century, with the
likes of Stravinsky (see Fig. 3), Schoenberg, and Edgar Varese, they were artists who embraced
diverse cultures into their artistic language.
Fast forward to the early 21st century, distinguished by the digital revolution, and we see
that their art now serves as a source of inspiration for millions of people who, in the face of
COVID, are experiencing a sense of darkness and isolation. They identify with Monet, Van
Gogh, and their artist colleagues, inspiring hope, love, and light, at a time when COVID is still
raging, and human society is in a state of disruption of what was normal life. As a result,
millions of people are flocking to Van Gogh and now Monet immersive experience exhibitions.

Fig. 2. Reproduction of Hokusai’s The

Great Wave, as it appears on the cover
page of Claude Debussy’s first edition of
the full score of La Mer, published by Fig. 3. Stravinsky seated, visiting Debussy in
Durand in 1905, in shades of green, blue, his house at 23 Square de l’Avenue Foch,
tan, and beige. Wikimedia Commons, Paris, France, 1910, the year of Stravinsky’s
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Debussy_ Firebird. Non-western cultures feature in the
-_La_Mer_- work of both artists. Note The Great Wave on
_The_great_wave_of_Kanaga_from_Hokusai.jpg the wall behind. Wikimedia Commons,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Debussy_Str
avinsky_1910.PNG
Digital Art and NFTs

Digital artists are taking key roles in creating NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) [16] and
immersive exhibitions. They often work with teams including computing and technology
specialists, designers, and curators. The digital artist, Joseph Ayerle (see Fig. 4), speaking of
his work reflects the broader field [2]: “I’m exploring art in the fields of photography, artificial
intelligence, video art, NFTs. By doing this I created in 2018 the world’s first film with an AI-
generated actress.” Since the advent of immersive exhibitions, museum identity has been
challenged to take seriously digital art and audience digital experience, while museums have
struggled to accept and define their place in the museum canon [8].
For museums, the tipping point has been the pandemic causing audiences to evaporate
resulting in major financial losses. With human digital behaviour and experience increasingly
at the heart of daily life, museums will need to pay greater attention to their digital identity and
its role in the life of museums, especially as human digital identity has evolved to where it now
dominates human life itself. Responding to this paradigm shift, museums now realize that it is
no longer a question of digital or physical, but rather, finding the path to an integrative model
that allows museums to move from past to present, from dusty and old-fashioned to current,
relevant, and contemporary. Along these lines, the recent British Museum exhibition, Hokusai:
The Great Picture Book of Everything [7] shows how digital experience is becoming embedded
in a new conceptual model of exhibitions and the museum itself. For example, the British
Museum has partnered with LaCollection to auction NFTs of 200 Hokusai works [1].

Fig. 4. Leaving Bergamo. Artist: Joseph Ayerle. Minted NFT artwork. Cycle: “The Art Of
Surviving One Day On Planet Earth In 2017” and art video “Surviving the Purple Prophecy”.
640 × 638 pixels, file size: 13.74 MBytes, MIME type: image/gif, looped, 62 frames, 5.0 s.
Wikimedia Commons,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leaving_Bergamo._Glitch_artwork_of_%E2%80%9EThe_Art_Of_S
urviving_One_Day_On_Planet_Earth_In_2017%E2%80%9C_and_the_artvideo_%22Surviving_The_Purple_Pr
ophecy%22,_artist_Joseph_Ayerle.gif
Immersive Experience Exhibitions Speak to Digital Identity

In 1890, at the time when Van Gogh was at the height of his creative powers, on the one
hand, he was creating paintings of enormous beauty, emotion, and insight; on the other hand,
he commits suicide. His incredible dedication to his art is seen in the more than the 150
paintings he produced in 1889, during the year he spent in an asylum for the mentally ill – the
same year of the sunflowers, and the haystacks. The immersive experience lays bare Van Gogh,
the man, the artist, and his narrative. No doubt audiences are connecting with Van Gogh’s art
and life and find connection with their own states of being during COVID, at a time of isolation
and depression – and even suicide, Van Gogh’s fate.
And what promises to be an immersive tour de force, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the
star of the immersive experience entitled “La Joconde” at the Palais de la Bourse, Marseille,
France, 10 March – 21 August 2022 [10]. The chief curator of painting at the Louvre, Vincent
Delieuvin, and French exhibition scenographer and interior designer, Sylvain Roca, lead the
exhibition team, under the auspices of the Grand Palais in Paris, which is currently under
restoration until 2024 and planning a dedicated space for multimedia exhibitions of this type.
The Grand Palais is advertising La Joconde as “a unique interactive and sensory experience”
that will “reveal what earned this painting its immense fame,” and is designed to help the visitor
“capture its essence and better understand the genius of its creator” [10].

The Metaverse: Building Virtual Worlds

The billions of dollars being invested in building the metaverse, are paving the way for
intense development of its digital landscape and the digital tools needed for making a digital
environment designed for human experiences of life across all facets of the digital world,
especially arts and culture. We are already seeing the fruits of digital innovation, and the
emergence of digital tools that are not only becoming more powerful, but also more natural,
thus elevating what humans can make and produce. When digital tools and devices are
embedded and human-centred, it means that for users, the focus shifts to creativity.
Over the past two years, the changes in daily life caused by COVID forcing retreat into
digital life have deeply impacted the human psyche, as the world sought refuge in their digital
devices and Internet life, still a 2D experience. Emerging from this extended human experience,
like digital warriors, we see digital light at the end of the tunnel that is forcing change and the
breakup of legacy systems, old-fashioned ways of doing and thinking, although turbulent at
times, is ushering in a new age where humans working with their digital counterparts, whether
robots, chatbots, or AI systems, have gained individual and collective means of making and
doing, experiencing, and expressing. Yes, the old-style repetitive work is going away – no tears
shed – enabling us to be more human and creative.

An Evolutionary Approach to the Pandemic: Digital Behaviour and Identity

The evolutionary process in the arts, as played out especially in Paris in the 19th century,
became the call for social and cultural change that foregrounds human freedom and individual
rights. This continues to resonate and propel 21st-century life and art that thrives on diversity
of paths forward, ideas, and solutions. In Robert Frost’s celebrated 1922 poem, Stopping by
Woods on a Snowy Evening, within the last verse, he paints the image of taking an untrodden
path, inspired to follow new directions navigating alone in darkness – like the feelings
engendered by the pandemic [9]:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Adding to the considerations of this study, we look at human digital behaviour, which has
become the preferred solution to address human challenges in face of the ebb and flow of the
virus, while its lack of predictability keeps most humans in a state of fear and obedience, and
a sense of loss of human freedom of choice, while longing for physical contact causing anxiety.
Because of the intense and essentially singular focus on vaccines, humans have not applied
adequate ingenuity to other possible therapeutics and pharmaceuticals. With the increase in
online degree courses, lack of campus face-to-face interaction has had an enormous impact on
human relationships between students, faculty and administrators as physical relationships fall
to the lowest levels of actuality, which critically, disincentivizes and minimizes accountability.
Human behaviour is evolving over the course of the pandemic as is COVID with its many
and increasing number of variants – a war of sorts between us the virus – the goal is as basic
as survival – not just staying alive but keeping human society and culture viable [6]. Thus,
humans are adjusting their social and cultural behaviours. A study queried ten evolutionary
scientists, among them, medical researchers, theoretical evolutionary biologists, and
evolutionary psychologists, “to share their insights about the evolutionary pressures on the
virus, our human response to the pandemic, and how an evolutionary approach can help us
cope with COVID-19” [19]. Sadly, over time, the forced isolation of COVID in combination
with the dominance of human digital behaviour, which before the pandemic was averaging
about 12 hours per day of human screen time, has relentlessly evolved now taking centre stage
in human communications. Being at the point of no return to our former life seems more and
more likely.
To project our identity in modern times, we need a digital identity for much human
interaction such as job interviews, teaching, meetings, etc. The pendulum has swung to digital
life, and still, we don’t know when and if it will swing back. In education, all things involving
computing and technology, AI, and ML, continue to make inroads to being dominant, as the
so-called “tech” sector occupies the highest place in earnings, surpassing all other industry
sectors. This is while neural networks, robots and algorithms are being driven by AI, ML, and
social media. With the implied materiality of the digital world, and as digital space and place
grow, those who can imagine, design, create, and be digital, will be leading what virtual life
will become for others later. This foretells a huge increase in the need for digital artists and
creators.
A report of 900 employees being fired over Zoom [21] symbolizes the decline of human
consciousness and caring. With the click of a computer key, employers can cancel employees
and their access to the community to which they assumed they were a member – but such
actions now have no accountability. Pre-COVID, this level of callus behaviour by a top
executive of a company called Better.com would not have been possible. So, in a sense,
transparency does not exist – our reality check is our real experience in the world [5]. Now
with lockdowns and isolation, we have lost our sense of orientation to what constitutes
normality, and what we can expect from our fellow humans.

CONCLUSION

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected reality for the entire world. Not only that, but it has
accelerated the increase in digitally that was already underway. This has caused cultural
changes with regards to the increase in online access for human contact as well as for
information and entertainment. So far, there have been constraints on what is possible in
practice due to technology and bandwidth limitations but, naturally, this is a moving target.
The idea of the “metaverse” has been in existence for some time, but is becoming
increasingly a practical reality, with Facebook now pushing the idea with respect to social
media and rebranding its overall operation as “Meta” [17]. In early 2022, Microsoft paid $69
billion for a leading videos games company, Activision, to helps its positioning with respect to
the metaverse [18]. Even commercial retail chains such as Walmart are seeing opportunities
with the metaverse and NFTs [20]. In the cultural world, VR, AR, and MR experiences, the
latter combining real-world and digital elements, are increasingly popular, and these are likely
to develop even further as metaverse technologies and facilities evolve too [3].

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper is a twin with a paper in the EVA London 2022 conference [15]. Jonathan Bowen
has received financial support through Museophile Limited.

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