Verse Immersive - Art of the Future

Last year, Jon and I went on a rare, kid-free, date night in Omaha. ​It was my job to plan what we were going to do, and I was pretty much at a loss - until the good old Facebook algorithm came through for me and suggested the Verse Immersive experience at the Amazing Pizza Machine in Omaha, NE. When I asked him if he wanted to go to the Amazing Pizza Machine, without our children, Jon asked me if I was serious. Yes, I was, and he was totally down for it too! We made plans to go eat a ton of food, then do two of the Verse Immersive Experiences. We decided on the Star Walk and the Art of the Future (of course!)

Before I get into the Experiences, let me explain what Verse Immersive is. It's not virtual reality, which completely blocks out your view of the room around you. They call it "augmented reality," which still uses a headset but projects 3-D images on top of the darkened room you are in. So from the outside looking in, there are a bunch of strangers in one room, all with headsets on, wandering around with their hands out (you can interact with the 3-D images with your hands and by aiming your viewpoint.) The headset plays sound and music just for you, so everyone in the room can be doing their own separate experience. I thought Jon and I would be working together, but we were actually doing our own thing in the same room. Plus, you can still see all the other people around you in your peripheral, so you don't run into each other or the wall.

We started off with Star Walk, which is educational about space and our solar system. Each experience is about 20 minutes long, and about 5 minutes into Star Walk my headset quit on me. The two teens running Verse Immersive basically said "Sorry about your luck" and were going to have me stand in the corner and watch Jon wander around, but when I pushed them with a "I paid for this, can't you do anything?" they restarted my headset and I jumped back in.

The second experience, and the one I was most looking forward to, was the Art of the Future. The description from the Verse Immersive website says, "Art of the Future is an immersive augmented reality (AR) art gallery which brings you into the future of art! Wearing Augmented Reality glasses, you'll walk around the room discovering groundbreaking artworks that push the boundaries of imagination! Explore the latest trends in digital art, virtual reality, and interactive installations, and learn about the techniques used to create them. Test your knowledge to see if you can spot the difference between famous art pieces, pieces from up-and-coming artists, and AI generated art. Date night, family adventure, or solo excursion - Art of the Future is great for all ages and all groups of people!" Sounds super cool, let's do it!

When we told the teens that was the next one we wanted, they said "Are you sure?" Now, we may not encourage interest in the arts in our country as much as we should, but could we maybe not actively try to discourage it? Yes, I am sure. Give me ALL of the arts experiences!

I'll admit that we both ran out of time before we could fully complete the Art of the Future experience, so I'm not sure how it ends. I have mixed feelings about it because the experience was like a gallery space with a series of pieces of art, and you were supposed to guess if each one was created by a professional artist, and emerging artist, or by AI. 

The whole experience had a very pro-AI generator message, which was really disheartening as a human artist. I wrote a post a while ago about AI generators, and now that they have been out for a few years now, and have largely been used in immoral, copyright infringing ways, I am extremely anti-AI. To the point that we watched "The Creator," a movie where a man tries to save an AI child, and I felt nothing. (If you didn't know, I cry whenever I watch the Paw Patrol movies with my kids and just last week I teared up during a 20 second Uber Teen commercial, so it doesn't take much to turn on my waterworks.) A pro-AI movie? Nothing. 

Overall, would I recommend Verse Immersive? Yes, I would! The augmented reality technology is very cool. However, I would like to see the Art of the Future encouraging more contemporary art made by actual artists, and less focus on AI-generated art theft. Maybe the writer(s)/designer(s) could have consulted with a few galleries or artists to get a less biased message. I'm all for technology that makes our lives easier or better (we love our robot vacuum, Rosie!) but I don't want technology to replace or destroy the value in human touch and creativity. 

I whole-heartedly believe that ANYONE can be an artist, but the theft of art with AI generators isn't the way to do it.