As time goes on and as more and more people have a chance to experience good, cutting edge virtual reality, advocates for the technology are springing up in the most unlikely of places. Now, actor and all round patron of the arts Kevin Spacey has gone on record saying he believes immersive technology holds the future of entertainment, so much so he’s invested in a VR company.

Kevin Spacey has proved a savvy observer of compelling trends in entertainment over the years. He was one of the first actors not only to believe in streaming technology, instrumental in bringing Netflix exclusive series House of Cards to our screens, he’s now proving he’s got his finger on the pulse when it comes to emergent immersive technologies too.

Speaking exclusively to the The Australian Financial Review ahead of an appearance at a conference in Brisbane next week, Spacey revealed that he believes virtual reality’s time has come. “A lot of the early problems with the technology have been solved,” Spacey says, “it’s time for the content creators to produce”.

To that end, and in keeping with his patronage of the arts (he was Artistic Director at London’s historical Old Vic theater between 2003 and 2015), he has chosen to put his money where is mouth is and invested in a company called WoofbertVR, a startup dedicated to bringing art from galleries around the world to the virtual realm. They describe themselves as allowing people to “Explore the world’s great museums and cultural destinations from the home, office, or classroom”. The company is currently seeking partnerships from galleries right now. You can find Woofbert on the Oculus Store for Gear VR right now.

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Woofbert is bringing art galleries to VR

Spacey himself is well respected both as an actor and as a patron of the arts. As virtual reality emerges, pushing into the public realm next year, both creators and consumers will be naturally skeptical of such a potentially disruptive technology. The industry needs more public figures like Spacey to actively get involved in the technology acting as advocates to help break those preconceptions down.

Feature Photo Courtesy The Old Vic Theatre

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Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • kalqlate

    Hmm… I hope the CG in the example image above is not how they plan on presenting the art environments. I hope rather than simulated CG environments that they actually capture the real environments, then capture each piece of art in hi-res so that they can be zoomed in on.

    • Don Gateley

      I’ll settle for CG for the museum so long as the art itself is hi-res camera quality. Doing so can drastically reduce the bandwidth required for the presentation and I’d like to see all the bandwidth possible allocated to the art, not the museum.

      This is what I want VR for. Games are for gamers.

      • kalqlate

        I agree. Not much of a gamer myself. I just discovered Periscope.tv. Yeah, I’m a late comer to such live streaming sites, but it’s my guess that a VR expansion added to Periscope and other messaging apps will be the killer app for VR and AR. For me, Periscope seems fun and addictive, and their zoom in from a world view is a great way to get your cultural voyeur on.