What is it about?
This article explores the educational potential of VR/AR for the secondary art curriculum through the perspectives and responses of undergraduate art students. The paper examines the writing outcomes of a discussion board forum activity that I created to invite the students to share their responses to and reflections on the use of VR/AR technologies in visual art and art education. I share the students’ perspectives on VR/AR use for studio art making under the following three themes: 1) excitement about the new art medium, 2) strengths and risks, and 3) educational potential for K-12 curriculum integration.
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Why is it important?
The emergent culture of COVID-19 underscored a gap among generations with regards to their responses to new innovations in the education field. In discussing the students’ reflections, contemporary artists’ use of VR/AR is also explored as a resource for art educators. I provide suggestions for art educators interested in incorporating VA/AR into their art lessons.
Perspectives
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are akin to what acrylic paints once used to be. This was a claim made by an artist who participated in Google’s Tilt Brush’s Artist in Residence (AiR), which I found to be thought-provoking. He stated, ‘When acrylic came on the scene, there was a large group of artists that refused to use it. They were like “I want oil paint. I’ll never paint acrylic.” And now, they’re painting acrylic’ (Google AR and VR 2017). I realised that the ‘VR/AR are just like acrylics’ approach could be a key to solving this intergenerational issue that could arise in school settings. If the resistance towards VR/AR is like the one acrylic paint faced decades ago, we will have moments very soon whereby we will easily and comfortably make art using these technologies. Evidently, nothing will remain new forever; nothing will stay unfamiliar forever either.
Borim Song
East Carolina University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Virtual reality and augmented reality technologies for art education: The perceptions and responses of undergraduate students, Visual Inquiry, December 2021, Intellect,
DOI: 10.1386/vi_00061_1.
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