Virtual gallery is a piece of art!
Students’ work is showcased online
THE first look at the UK’s largest virtual reality gallery of student work has been unveiled and it’s all thanks to creative leaders in West Wales.
Carmarthen School of Art has created Britain’s largest virtual reality gallery to showcase students’ work.
The massive online project is the first of its kind in the UK and places people inside a fully realised gallery to wander through online from the comfort of their own homes.
The scale of the project has also attracted attention from America where the software creators Sneekbeek have been astounded at how Carmarthen School of Art and Coleg Sir Gâr have managed to pull off such a feat.
Usually there is an endof-year show at Coleg Sir Gâr’s Jobs Well campus in Carmarthen, but this was not possible due to coronavirus restrictions.
But staff have instead created a virtual showcase to celebrate the achievements of final-year students across the art and design courses.
It features more than 1,600 digital files, more than 50 gigabytes of storage, 10 million-plus 3D pixels and more than 1,000 individual pieces of art. The result is a 15,000sq ft of digitalL gallery space, which houses 180 higher and further education students from across the college.
Head of Carmarthen School of Art Paula Phillips Davies said: “We have tapped into the expertise of our staff in the 3D design and virtual reality,
concept art and illustration and photography degree courses to build a virtual gallery.
“As a result, we will be able to show the incredible work that our students have created.
“It is the first time we will be able to showcase the work of all of our degrees and further education courses at the same time ‘under one roof’.
our “We colleagues have also from invited the art and design courses in Coleg Ceredigion to show their students’ work with us.'
Lecturer of photography at the Carmarthen School of Art Huw Alden Davies said: “It might be one of the biggest virtual 360 exhibitions to have been made yet, exhibiting a staggering 180 students across seven colleges.
“This thing really is a first of its kind, with
Carmarthen School of Art being the only British art school to go to this level to celebrate their graduates in the face of this pandemic.
“It is colossal, almost impossible to build and I’ve been speaking to the developers of the software Sneekbeek who have been scratching their heads as to how we built the gallery using their software, they’ve been saying ‘you built that with this software?’
“So we are now looking to showcase how we did it with them.
“I also want to add how proud we are of our students and what they have achieved. They are amazing.”
The exhibition can be accessed via www.colegsirgar.ac.uk along with its social media pages. It will run throughout the summer.