Efficacy of virtual reality in painting art exhibitions appreciation

Virtual reality (VR) technology has been employed in a wide range of fields, from entertainment to medicine and engineering. Advances in VR also provide new opportunities in art exhibitions. This study discusses the experience of art appreciation through desktop virtual reality (Desktop VR) or head-mounted display virtual reality (HMD VR) and compares it with appreciating a physical painting. Seventy-eight university students participated in the study. According to the findings of this study, painting evaluation and the emotions expressed during the appreciation show no significant difference under these three conditions, indicating that the participants believe that paintings, regardless of whether they are viewed through VR, are similar. Owing to the limitation of the operation, the participants considered HMD VR to be a tool that hinders free appreciation of paintings. In addition, attention should be paid to the proper projected size of words and paintings for better reading and viewing. The above indicates that through digital technology, we can shorten the gap between a virtual painting and a physical one; however, we must still improve the design of object size and the interaction in the VR context so that a virtual exhibition can be as impressive as a physical one.