Enter a Virtual Art Gallery on the Dream Planet ‘Whateverland’

Back in December, the German VR Nerds collective released Lucid Trips, an attempt to fuse virtual reality and lucid dreaming with a novel attempt at haptic feedback, the virtual simulation of touch and gesture. To do this, the team used an Oculus Rift headset and PlayStation Move controllers (one for each hand) to simulate a floating, arm-based type of bipedal locomotion, which they likened to spacewalking without legs.

Over the last six months, VR Nerds have parlayed Lucid Trips into something new. Not content with psychedelic video games, the collective has created a virtual reality art gallery called "Whateverland." The gallery is not an actual physical space, but a "dreamplanet" in their Lucid Trips "dreamuniverse".

In some ways Whateverland calls to mind the black spherical planet known as "the Metaverse" in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. And, like the Metaverse, Whateverland is a place for the virtual imagination to run wild in either creation or exploration mode.

"As Lucid Trips is a dreamuniverse where people can slip into the dreamworlds of other people, we first wanted to make art visible from these completely new dimensions and perspectives that are possible through the medium of virtual reality," VR Nerds' Whateverland initiator Sara Lisa Vogl told Motherboard. "An inspiration for us was Rolf Bergmeier, who did an installation about three years ago — before the Oculus Rift came out — where he 3D-scanned a piece of art and made it visible in virtual reality."

Vogl said that Whateverland, which runs on the Unity game engine, is to be understood as the virtual world's all-encompassing content and gameplay. The dreamplanet will be composed of various islands, each one hosting an original piece of art. When the consumer versions of Oculus Rift, Sony Morpheus, and HTC and Valve's Vive headsets hit the market, users will be able to explore Whateverland from the confines of their own homes, or wherever they happen to be when jacked in.

Anyone can submit art to Whateverland, but Vogl, as the gallery's curator, ultimately selects the featured artists. The submission formats vary. Digital artists can create a 3D model of their work and submit it to the team for review. "Analog creators"—sculptors, for instance—can 3D scan their work and submit it for upload to Whateverland. And artists also have the option of 3D printing their virtual works, bringing them from the ethereal into the physical realm.

"Every artwork can 'be set free' by solving a hidden riddle based on the artist's intention," Vogl explained. "When the user obtains access to the artwork, they will get the opportunity to purchase it as a 3D print."

Vogl said that the key criteria for exhibition in the virtual art gallery is a willingness to explore, but also have artwork explored by others from new dimensions and perspectives. Initially, Whateverland will feature work by well-known artists like Gero Doll, who is currently working on pieces specifically for the virtual gallery. VR Nerds are also commissioning works by famed German painter Neo Rauch, graffiti artist Daim, Rolf Bergmeier, and others.

"We also want to feature art that is specifically created for the medium of Virtual Reality and has some tweaks that blow our minds," Vogl said. If Whateverland goes well, Vogl said another planet may well be created for entirely different curation concept.