After more than two years of development the Museum of Other Realities is out of early access and opening its virtual doors to the public with works from nearly two dozen groundbreaking VR-based artists.
The MOR is an only-possible-in-VR showcase of artwork spanning some of the most experienced artists in the world building across a wide range of tools like Quill, Medium, and Tilt Brush. The platform includes both solitary exploration for a serene and contemplative experience as well as social support to explore the museum with friends or strangers.
The social support is built with the Normcore mutliplayer software development kit from the developer of Half and Half and there are protection tools in place to facilitate comfortable experiences. The MOR saves every last bit of PC performance for the artworks so it features geometrically simple avatars that can be customized inside the museum.
Artists exhibiting their work in the launch release are groundbreaking creators, many of whom pioneered their own workflows or tools to produce their work, including:
- Rosie summers
- Liz Edwards
- Matt Schaefer
- Kevin Mack
- Nick Ladd
- Danny Bittman
- Vladimir Ilic
- Sutu
- Issac Cohen (@cabbibo)
- Em Halberstadt
- Mike Murdock
- Bastiaan Hooimeijer (@_naam)
- Romain Revert
- Sabby Lighf
- John Orion Young (JOY)
- Durk van der Meer
- Scott Bennett (@scobot)
- Sean Tann
- Anand Duncan
- Micah Milner (Micah404)
CEO and museum founder Robin Stethem took me on a tour of the rebuilt space recently and I found it astonishing how much it changed since the early days. I’ve never found myself saying “wow” as many times as I did looking through each room, listening to the subtle echo of my voice seeming to bounce off the museum’s walls, flying, resizing myself with a drink like Alice In Wonderland, and gasping at the scale of the this impossible place and the thoughtful, interactive, and responsive works on display.
The MOR is around $20 and available on Steam, Viveport and seeking release on the Oculus Store for Rift. They’re planning regular updates for the gallery as well as hosting events in the museum.
