Experience Klimt's world of images in VR

To mark the 100th anniversary of Gustav Klimt's death, VR artist and filmmaker Frederick Baker has transformed one of his major works into a landscape that can be entered via VR glasses for the Museum of Applied Arts.

Bringing art and life together, enveloping people in beauty, was a declared goal of Art Nouveau. That is why digital artist Frederick Baker is pretty sure that Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) would have been enthusiastic about VR. And especially, of course, of the installation Klimt's Magic Garden, which Baker is showing at the Museum of Applied Arts (Mak) to mark the 100th anniversary of Klimt's birth: Anyone who puts on the VR glasses will find themselves in the middle of Klimt's visual world.

The floor of this hilly landscape is studded with shimmering golden ornaments; spiralling, ornate trees tower above you all around. Triangular patterns flow down as waterfalls, and at some point you find yourself standing in a rain of eyes and squiggles. The horrendously kitschy, but worth experiencing VR trip is inspired by Klimt's mosaic frieze for the Palais Stoclet in Brussels. Baker has combined set pieces to create a fantasy that is somewhere between post-apocalypse and Alice in Wonderland (in the style of Tim Burton).

First-person flaneur instead of first-person shooter

Auch die Narration der interaktiven virtuellen Reise – „Erwartung und Erfüllung“ – ist an Klimt angelehnt. Der Digitalkünstler habe sich hierbei überlegt, wie so eine Landschaft zum Thema Erwartung und wie eine zu Erfüllung aussehen könnte. Der Weg, den Betrachter durch die virtuelle Welt nehmen, ist frei wählbar.

This prompts Baker and Mak director Christoph Thun-Hohenstein to philosophise about non-linearity, new work concepts and unusual perspectives on Klimt's original, which Baker's well thought-out work certainly makes possible. It is based not least on the artist's many years of research into alternative narratives in VR.

Klimt’s Magic Garden ist mitunter auch ein Versuch, VR einem breiten Publikum möglichst niedrigschwellig nahezubringen und sie als Kunstform zu etablieren. Dies ist der Grund, warum Baker sich darum bemüht, Computerspielklischees zu durchbrechen: „Ego-Flaneur statt Ego-Shooter“, so beschreibt er seinen Ansatz, der mehr auf alternative Verwendungsweisen und weniger auf den schnellen Rausch zielt.

Source: derstandard