DISPLAYING DIGITAL ART IN THE METAVERSE
It’s a simple matter to display most physical artworks. For NFT collections, it’s complicated. Some art galleries use high-definition monitors to display digital art, and companies like Infinite Objects will make high-quality prints of digital works. And a number of galleries are set up in the metaverse to show NFTs.
C.J. Yeh, professor of Communication Design and co-coordinator of the Creative Technology minor, has a vision for how digital art should be experienced. His “transdisciplinary design studio,” Cynda Media Lab, has built a metaverse gallery, Experience.MODA (the Museum of Digital Art). It’s an interactive way to experience NFTs that transcends the way art is typically shown online. “Right now, the metaverse galleries try to simulate the white box galleries we have in the physical world,” he says. “To me that is very boring. We’re in the metaverse! Why are we doing things the way we do in the world?”
Experience.MODA displays not just flat art but also 3D pieces and video—both Yeh’s and others’ work. It’s set under a blue sky, features visual effects like rain, and includes a 3D soundscape, which becomes louder or softer depending on where the user stands. “It’s no longer imitating reality,” Yeh says, “it’s creating a new kind of reality.”