The VR Experience at The NEXT

by Dene Grigar, PhD, Managing Director and Curator

When the lab began collecting the digital files for the works we are showcasing in The NEXT, we also received boxes of physical archives. For example, The Turbulence Collection features 369 net art pieces dating from 1996 to 2006, but it also involves eight boxes of files of publishing contracts, ephemera, and gallery catalogs that Helen Thorington and Jo-Anne Green also sent us. Sometimes the boxes sent to us contained artifacts that went beyond papers that documented the provenance of the works. Instead, they held performance props, like the beach balls and Spam cans Richard Holeton used when doing public readings of Figurski at Findhorn on Acid; hand-made items, like the shower curtain and pinwheel Deena Larsen used for teaching the public about hypertext and interactive art; or conference swag, like badge holders and t-shirts; and even jewelry, like the brooches Sarah Smith made to evoke the visage of Lady Nii, one of the characters from the King of Space.

The question of what to do with artifacts that contextualize works held in the digital archive was not a difficult one to answer: We turn them into interactable 3D models and make them accessible via their own space in The NEXT that we call the Visualization space. Our rationale, influenced as we were by the lock-down during the pandemic, was (and still is) that we want visitors to be able to study these items without having to travel to the lab to see them. This aspect of The NEXT was planned along with the rest of the spaces when, in 2020, it shifted from a repository merely holding files of born-digital works to one that also exhibits and documents the works themselves.

We achieved our goal, but were never really happy with the result because, frankly, manipulating artifacts on a browser does not fully capture the experience we wished to provide visitors. This is because the Web interface itself is 2-dimensional and the objects are only able to be moved across the 2D plane. Also, the 3D models still feel like representations no matter how close to the physical artifact they look. We all agreed that, at best, what we had accomplished with the Visualization space was making it possible for visitors to study details of the physical artifacts. The scratches on the black ink on the hard hat that Rob Wittig wore during his performances of “Invisible Seattle Literary Computer project” aptly shows the costume’s wear and tear over these 40 years. Visitors can also see that when preparing the CD-ROM of Stuart Moulthrop’s Victory Garden for distribution, Eastgate Systems, Inc. used a standard company label, then hand-wrote the work’s title with a marker on it. These details are important to people who study born-digital art, literature, and games in that they help to date the works and explain the material processes it took to produce them.

What was needed to improve the experience with the physical artifacts, however, was bringing them into the same 3D space as the visitor––that is, creating a Virtual Reality environment where we could close the gap of space between the object and visitor, a gap we experience when we interact with it on a distant computer screen. Additionally, as a virtual object, the 3D model has the potential to behave more like the physical object it reflects. Visitors in the VR space can throw the beach balls, which can then bounce and roll, behaviors they cannot do in the browser. So, that is what we did for Phase 2 of the Visualization space: We built a VR experience for The NEXT. Standard practice may have resulted in using an engine like Unity or Unreal, but since the lab employs open-source processes for much of its work, we opted for open Web languages and WebXR. Funding for this stage of the project came from WSU Vancouver as a mini-grant that paid for the programming and enhancements to the 3D models. As of March 2025, we have made 22 artifacts accessible via a Quest 2, 3, or Apple Vision Pro as virtual objects for the Visualization space with the plan to showcase 16 at a time. Of course, we have plans to add more in the future. We are also envisioning a Phase 3 that would entail a VR app for the Apple App Store that we hope will entice a new audience to visit The NEXT.

While working on Phase 2, I taught a course in Spatial Computing at the university and worked on the Future of Text in XR project with Frode Hegland. These two experiences pushed me to think not just practically about what we were doing in the lab to build the VR environment for The NEXT but led me to build a methodology and guiding principles to underpin decisions we were making. For example, I was pushing my students in the course to imagine the VR space as something beyond the real, to avoid skeuomorphic design. This approach reflects what I think of as my “First Principle of XR”: The virtual world does not need to follow the laws of the physical world. A virtual beach ball, for example, does not need to respond to force in the same way as one in the physical world: If tossed forward, it could roll backwards. But while working with the physical artifacts for The NEXT, I realized a “Second Principle of XR” was needed: A physical object created for a virtual environment to contextualize and provide provenance for a work of art should reflect the attributes of that object. This means that the virtual beach ball we produced to simulate Holeton’s should look like the one we are holding, even to the extent we show the fading ink on its surface and the puckers of the plastic at the seams. It also means that when we toss it, it should indeed go forward and then bounce at the same pace as it does in the physical world. The drive to attain this sense of verisimilitude required us to revisit some of the 3D models we had done earlier to bring them closer to their physical counterparts.

I would like to credit our XR programmer, Andrew Thompson, for the hard work in building the VR environment and integrate the 3D models into it. Our designer, Holly Slocum, did a wonderful job creating the interface for the VR experience’s landing space. Greg Philbrook, our tech guru, programmed the landing space and maintains the server for all of The NEXT. Many people are credited with the production of the 3D models, including Sierra O’Neal and Andrew Truax. All of these specialists are graduates of the unit I direct at WSU Vancouver: Creative Media & Digital Culture in the Department of Digital Technology & Culture. I also want to acknowledge the ongoing support of my Chancellor, Dr. Mel Netzhammer.