Art gallery visitors interest in virtual reality art exhibitions

Background: Exhibitions in art galleries can be digitized and accessed by visitors through virtual reality. The main question of this study seeks to find out what are the reactions, impressions and suggestions of a group of participants viewing an exhibition can be explored both in physical space and in virtual reality. objective(s) The main purpose of this paper is to observe the interest of art gallery visitors in VR technology used for art exhibitions and to analyze how well they interact with the VR experience dedicated to an art gallery. Materials and Methods: The VR experience developed as a result of this study offers users a virtual space in which they can find the events that took place in the Aparte gallery at the George Enescu University in Iași, by faithfully capturing all the elements in the exhibition space following the digitization of the gallery and the exhibited works. The works have been digitized by photogrammetry, respect the proportions in reality and offer users a high degree of detail. Data were collected through questionnaires, interviews, think-aloud, and notes were taken while using the VR app. The group of participants in this experiment could experience both the virtual exhibition and the exhibition that took place in the physical space. Results: We collected the answers to the survey questions from 30 visitors who tested the VR experience. 15 men and 15 women took part in the experiment, and the age range was between 25 and 60 years. A high level of interest in virtual reality was noted, and most participants enthusiastically approached the proposal to participate in the experiment, verbally mentioning their desire and curiosity to explore the VR art gallery exhibit. Conclusion: The virtual art gallery is a solution in terms of space, dimensions, and even location, as it can be accessed from anywhere via the Internet and can accommodate any type of exhibit. More than 90% of the participants stated that they agree or strongly agree to use the VR set in exhibitions in the future, and after experiencing the VR application, most of the participants expressed their desire to see more such exhibitions in VR and they noted some advantages of this type of experience, such as viewing exhibitions from home or exploring past exhibitions that they had not been able to get to.