The VR Art Live community is one we’ve been following for a while, given how this community of diverse artists has been lighting up the VR art and live performance landscape.
We got in touch with five artists from this community to ask them to share a bit about their VR journey and engagement as members, especially keen on learning about 2020 which they’ve been celebrating as the Year of VR. VR Art Live is best known for how anyone interested in the XR art industry is welcome to join their discord community. By holding events, challenges, and shows throughout the year on various VR platforms -- a kind of fever to stay creative is maintained. The artists share their work, find feedback, and work on improving and expanding their skills in parallel, making up for the dynamic energy in their highly engaged channels.
Music: A Whisper by Ann Annie. Sourced from the YouTube audio library.
Sabby Lighf, the founder of VR Art Live and also a well-followed community leader, is someone with an active belief in wanting to share from all points in her learning curve. Sabby tells us how she founded the community in response to a need she felt, as a self-taught artist making sense of the XR industry. Her 365 Day Project concluded recently, and it made way for challenges becoming a key part of the community philosophy and a form of daily engagement. Artists take on the challenge to make new works of art daily, weekly, or monthly with a commitment. “The very social nature of the VR Art Live community is what makes it so active, as even when we’re not creating art we’re all just hanging out and talking about it!”.
Reverse Butcher is a multi-disciplinary artist working across traditional and digital art & active in the Live Performance scene with some incredible linework and what someone old school could call stage presence. “In 2019 when I started experimenting with VR art, I drifted towards live-streaming. I connected with Sabby Light on Twitch, and started streaming myself solidly for about 6 months in 2019. I found that streaming live to the VRALive Discord group was a much better fit for me.”
Reverse Butcher also shared details about The VRBurn (& REBurn) event that the VR Art Live community put on in The Wave in December 2019 - which proved to be a transformative experience. “It was so freeing to see structures that would have been impossible for me to build IRL. To literally rise out of the ground and fly into the sky. To make spatial poems that shattered language and the laws of physics, and that couldn’t exist in any other artform OTHER than VR - in a live VR rave.”
“At the end of 2018 I took part in a VR Art competition in Berlin led by XR artist Miguelangelo Rosario. His aim was to inspire and teach other artists about VR and AR tools so that they would adopt this exciting new medium. Through his personal workshops I learnt how to use Gravity Sketch, Tilt Brush and ARize.” In a surprise announcement at the end of this event every participant received an Oculus Quest. Bioptix_XR considers this to have been an enabling starting point and the beginning of their journey as an XR artist.
Through social media Dan heard about Sabby putting on the VR Burn festival in Wave XR and decided to submit a Tilt Brush artworks for consideration. The work was accepted and like that Bioptix_XR was welcomed by the WaveXR and VR Art Live Communities. “Everyone works together to motivate each other, to share knowledge about this new medium, and to take part in community challenges, which bring the artists even closer together. I am currently working on my 14th weekly submission for the 'Year of VR art' challenge.”
Paperpyro is a big fan of the work that the artists at Riot Games have been creating. The VR drawings that were shared for this piece are meant as a form of tribute to them. While Paperpyro is not taking part in the ongoing VRA Live challenges, the engagement of community leaders has been a major draw. “The community is very nice and supportive. I especially love how much engagement the community leaders show in the Discord server.”
Suk_VR_Art
“I have been working every day in the 'Daily' section since January 1, 2020. I think it is a friendly and easily accessible community for people who want to do VR ART. And the management is really active and global.” The work Suk_VR_Art shared with us is a scene where a young deer comes to drink water, quietly in the woods. The work was created using Tilt Brush and can also be experienced with a sound component.
Suk_VR_Art has a style with a reminiscent quality, taking you to places and scenes from stories and fables.
Learn more about VRA Live on their website, Twitter, Instagram, and Discord.
