The Virtual Museum by Jeffrey Shaw

The Virtual Museum by Jeffrey Shaw emerged in Frankfurt, Germany, as a pioneering exploration of virtual reality. With hardware by Huib Nelissen and software by Gideon May, this three-dimensional computer-generated museum marked a conceptual shift in exhibiting immaterial artistic creations. Viewers engaged in interactive journeys, controlling their movement through a circular, rotating platform with a large video projection monitor. The Virtual Museum featured five rooms, deemphasizing differences between real and virtual spaces that are now commonplace but were much more radical in 1991. In this sense, like many of these early-90s VR displays, it can be seen as a proto-Metaverse. Exhibited globally, it left a undeniable mark on the evolving landscape of virtual art, contributing to exhibitions in Frankfurt, Paris, Nagoya, Linz, Munich, Madrid, Los Angeles, Hannover, San José, Madrid, Valladolid, Reykjavik, Hengelo, Shanghai, Zagreb, Karlsruhe, and beyond.