Experiencing Art In An Immersive Environment: Using The Ars Survey To Compare Art Appreciation

The emergence of virtual reality is challenging traditional notions of artistic engagement. Besides the popularity of art exhibitions using VR, little is known about art appreciation in an immersive setting. In this paper, we investigate the impact of virtual reality on art appreciation, by conducting a pilot experiment using physical paintings and their respective models in VR to compare the art appreciation for both, using the ARS survey. We conducted the experiment during Fall 2023 and Spring 2024. Results show little to no difference in the overall art appreciation of the artworks when comparing three paintings in the immersive environment versus the paintings in the physical environment. We found some small discrepancies between the experiences of the artwork when comparing the averages for the individual artworks, but it is not clear if these differences are significant enough. Further investigation is necessary to understand the reason why these differences were observed.