Jessica Serna
Audio By Carbonatix
In the original 1931 cult classic movie, Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein tries to bring life to a human-form monster he reconstructed with second-generation dead body parts.
And when he meets with success, he doesn’t scream “eureka” like some minor-league Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb. Instead, he proclaims softly and in incrementally graduated decibels, “It’s alive. It’s alive. It’s alive. It’s alive.”
This is exactly the energy one will feel when they dive into a pool of immersive art and all its experiential forms. Unlike traditionally observing static art longingly from a distance, immersive art is a pastime to be experienced. Immersive art is visual, yes, but it’s also holistic, multisensory and exploratory. It requires interaction, active involvement and engagement in the art installation from participants. The experience effectively blurs the imaginary line dividing the audience from the art by knocking down the allegorical fourth wall typically associated with art appreciation.
For Kyle Sauter, co-founder of Gallery DeFi in West Dallas, immersive art is about making art more reachable to wider audiences.
“Not [everyone] is stimulated in the same way as if you were an artist,” he says. “We want to make art more accessible in how it’s viewed with the large-scale installation.”
Sauter also doesn’t believe immersive art is a trend, but emanates from a natural evolution.
“Some art needs to be seen on a big white wall by itself,” he says. “But that requires a lot of real estate, and it’s very selective.”
Interestingly, advances in technology are helping the immersive art trend grow and thrive. Technology allows artists to push boundaries and give birth to new expressions in art. Artists can transform their artwork through electronic elements, sound and light, further advancing the multisensory experience for audiences through augmented and virtual reality. People, too, are driving the growth of immersive and experiential art forms when they post their personal digital and immersive art experiences on their social media platforms.
Gallery DeFi is capturing that aspect of technology to make its art more immersive.
“We also incorporate projection mapping, which is taking stationary projectors and projecting them on established art whether that be on a mural, installation or sculpture,” Sauter tells us. “What that does is it adds movement and kind of brings it to life. It allows you to look at art in a way that is beyond its intention with a sequence of projections.”
This immersive art trend is increasingly popular globally and locally.
In a lot of ways, the original Immersive Van Gogh Dallas opened the floodgates when it debuted at Lighthouse ArtsSpace in 2021. Imagine possessing the ability to step right into a Van Gogh painting, such as his “Café Terrace at Night” or “Starry Night over the Rhone,” and see it literally come alive in a 360-degree projection of large-scale images or through virtual reality. The experiences allow you to imagine what Van Gogh saw as he painted his masterpieces. Through the moving images of paintings, visitors can be consumed by colors, rich details, and even brushstrokes.
In Dallas and the surrounding areas, a plethora of immersive art and experiential exhibits are finding success. The highly anticipated Netflix House at the Galleria Mall is slated to open later this year. Meow Wolf in Grapevine, Museum of Illusions Dallas, and the Immersive Theatre at the North Texas Performing Arts in Plano are also a few of the immersive art venues that make art interactive in North Texas.
New York-based Fever, a global live entertainment discovery platform, is another entry into the Dallas market. It provides unique art experiences in the immersive-experiential form. Its Glow and Go experience and Sensas (an escape room-like adventure) exhibit are in the Dallas Design District.
Glow and Go offers group bonding experiences through challenges. Conceptually, it melds intrigue and the ability to solve a problem creatively after discovering that the world has lost its color. Groups are tasked with fighting an opponent, Black & White Nemesis, to bring color back to each room. As the group wins each challenge filled with high-tech lights and sounds, the colors of the room are restored.
According to Luke Lopez, the assistant general manager of Glow and Go, the challenges in each space test not just your physical skills but your mental agility, too. Lopez believes people are turning to immersive experiences because they are seeking new and exciting adventures. Instead of looking at a video game, people can be a part of the video game, Lopez suggests.
“You know, we can go to the movies, and movies are a fan favorite… a classic, right? But you want to be a part of something, and I think this really develops team building, bonding, and it gets kids off their phones,” he says.
Don’t let those transplant TikTok creators tell you, “There’s nothing to do in Dallas,” ever again.
