The Virtual Art Movement Needs A Name

In 2016, I painted a friend's avatar in Second Life for fun. Thinking it might lead somewhere, I asked fellow artist Bryn Oh what she thought of it. She immediately showed me a painting she had done of her own avatar. I realized this would become an art movement of its own one day.

Researching different ways to intersect art and technology over the past eight years has been nothing short of a thrill ride. Finally, after so much research, I reached a point where I felt sharing with others was the next step. That finally happened this past Saturday at Strange Pear Gallery in VRChat.

Here's the video and discussion from that meeting:

I don't think it's fair to decide a movement name on my own. "Gridism" was temporary until the idea could catch on with other interested artists or someone suggested something better.

There were several good genre names suggested at the meeting in the video above. If you'd like to vote on what name you like best, you can do so here. The poll closes at end of day on August 16th, so please get your vote in by then. You can choose up to three names on the list, so don't fret about picking just one.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project and research! I hope it gives artists new ideas of how to paint with VR and augmented reality. As mentioned in the video, The Metaculture will continue on as a place for guides not usually found on news websites. I have other art projects I'd like to pursue here as well, so this won't be the last time you hear from me.

Until the next article!

-K