SmArt Spaces: Restructuring Art Galleries as Interactive Portals

Abstract

Continued oscillation between digital environments and physical realities has created a demand for hyper-interactive community spaces. Because the overall cost of prototyping extended reality (XR) experiences can require large initial investments of time and money, current art spaces could be used for prototyping digital environments with physical spaces. Integrating an art gallery with digital sensors, cameras, and projectors could allow for rapid prototyping of XR development, solving rudimentary problems found with spatial navigation, sensory exposure, and psychological ramifications in a more cost efficient manner.

Not only do these SmArt Spaces provide pivotal community engagement centers, they act as cultural hubs transcending divisions based on location. Connecting multiple spaces with virtual, and mixed reality experiences embrace concepts of the omni-connected environments in the near future. Integrating the primal functions of both art and an art gallery in the form of experience engages those willing to enter the space and provides an excellent opportunity for XR prototyping case studies. These spaces would naturally develop as community research centers and allow for a centralization of cultural experience and organization.

This writing aims to establish a baseline of artistic explorations relating to the interconnectivity of all humans through technology. Combining culture, location, and communication this seminal work attempts to better define underlying truths to how humans experience while providing a synthesis of physical and digital elements in order to create future SmArt Spaces