IMMERSED IN Van Gogh
By Ryan Tramonte
Once at Vacation Bible School — yes , I went to Vacation Bible School , once and only once — anyway , once at Vacation Bible School when I was 9 years old , we were asked a strange question : if we could be any other person in the world for one day , who would we want to be ? Stunned , I raised my hand and stated very clearly that my parents did not allow me to fantasize about things that could not happen , but if I did , I would want to be Gloria Vanderbilt because she was a strong woman with a great head of hair , and I liked denim . I was told I was excused from the exercise and later that day , told I was excused from the rest of Vacation Bible School .
Living as someone else just didn ’ t seem like a smart thing to me . I had everything : I was smart , I was funny , I had good hair , I wore Garanimals . That feeling stayed with me my whole life , until I recently walked into the traveling , immersive adventure celebrating artistic master Vincent van Gogh . The exhibit has been traveling and active since 2017 and is produced by tech masters Exhibition Hub and Fever .
Unlike most walking museum exhibits , where you get drowned in audio , but are shown too little visual information and too little entering visual elements , this immersive journey keeps the information light and digestible , and keeps you moving along at a comfortable pace with a dynamic payoff .
You won ’ t just learn about the artist ’ s life through Virtual Reality technology — you will get to live his life for 10 minutes . You wake up in his famed bedroom and step out into the village that was the inspiration for so
24 | The French Quarterly