The need for creative expression in schools is of great importance as to ensure that students are creative in their learning and work. Art is a subject with a multitude of mediums, but I believe would benefit for a deeper look into VR and its possibilities. A school that was too poor to afford a trip to a gallery instead simulated the gallery in a programme called second life so that the children could experience it. However, I believe we can get more creative and deeper hence why I looked at the Kingspray Graffiti VR game for HTC Vive. It’s a simulator that uses v.r technology to allow people who like street art of graffiti to practice and create in a setting true to the nature of the art. Many young artists today are attracted to this type of art because of artists like Banksy and his anonymity, or because the majority of city’s have graffiti and it considered to be free expression and uncontained by a single canvas. However some cities are more tolerant to it then others, Bristol for example has a huge wall dedicated to graffiti where as other places feel that it’s nothing more than a smear on a wall. That why this programme could provide an ideal way to help artists express themselves in the classroom (Schukei 2019) without the real-life mess and the work is not breaking the law or limiting the size of a piece to just a small canvas. With the built-in screenshot mechanic Artists can take a snap shot of their work or alternatively create their own gallery of walls of their work and have examiners use the VR set to have close up inspections of the work itself similar to how one would do in a standing gallery. The Kingspray programme boasts many features and has been designed with the artists in mind. The software offers realistic setting many of which help out aspiring artists that aren’t so lucky to be able to create shapes and visualise their thoughts directly onto the canvas( Aboalgasm & Ward 2014), Kingspray adds a middleman with stencils and templates so if artists need a shape or character from media to use an inspiration the stencil can be added to the canvas and then painted on top of and edited, meaning students can mix, match and merge different styles of art. This changes the typical approach to sketching as opposed to pencil and paper where one easy mistake can mean the artist has wasted their time and resources and has to restart, instead they have a new more enjoyable way to engage in an exciting new media with more creative freedom despite it happening on a screen (MacMurray, 2017). The paint itself has realistic physics but with more control, based off the high quality Ironlak spray paint brand that has wet paint that dries over time, and with the replay system you can watch the artist create their work in every detail, every stroke can be recorded into a time-lapse. This changes the way that examination pieces of art can be viewed allowing unprecedented viewing quality and a way to track what techniques and methods the student used, this also benefits the portfolio aspect as the art can be captured in high definition quality meaning no human error in the taking of pictures and no risk of having the piece damaged in storage or transit, this also means that examiners would no longer need to visit schools or students if this technology was implemented as they can access the works online and view them by themselves or view them with four other examiners. This is also compatible with the cross-platform multiplayer where four artists can collaborate (Gillies 2003) on giving establishments the opportunity for students to co-operate and for teachers to be directly involved with the projects as well. This option also means that students can get direct help from staff in the virtual world rather then trying to have a conversation in the two realities. The application also boasts the “director system” which allows a cinematic view of the art work to the spectator from where the artist believes the work should be viewed, the camera cutting is automated meaning students who are not as technologically savvy with video editing software are put at ease. The software also includes a boombox allowing students to stream music directly into the game to grant them inspiration to their own style of music being motivational and inspirational to their style of art, this can also be used towards exams and the pursuit of stimuli.
Adams (2019) has provided an article around the Scots council distributing V.R headsets to educational institutions of primary and secondary schools to increase the imaginative capabilities of the students by adding a new way to spark the children’s interests. A very good reason to then include a software like kingspray so that the children can collaborate and create a work of art based on said inspirations be it a stencil or freehand kingspray has them covered. Corporations such as Audi are reported to have been using Virtual reality to design new car sketches between multiple designers meaning that this software could soon be considered like the Microsoft Office package as a necessity in the working world for some careers. To conclude Kingspray graffiti studio can offer a new dynamic aspect to the world of digital art and art classrooms by providing a new tool for students to use and be inspired by without the mess of paints, pencils and clays. You can find out all these features out at http://infectiousape.com/.
The Potential of VR Technology 