Drawing Room is the first fully hand-drawn VR experience by visual artist Jan Rothuizen, known for The Soft Atlas of Amsterdam and his award winning interactive documentary Refugee Republic. For this project Rothuizen teamed up with interactive director Sara Kolster and new media collective Zesbaans. Together they recreated in clear lines the interior and the view of a room on the roof of a department store in the center of Amsterdam.
The department store invited Rothuizen to spend some time on the roof to create a work of art. Through the eyes and thoughts of the artist, we discover the room and the city below. Drawing Room playfully deals with the question Virtual Reality creates: can being somewhere, an experience, be a work of art in itself?
Artistic cinematic experience. So this is a purely VR cinematic experience, focused on this type of art. The reason I only give it three stars is because I'm not sure the experience is worth the $1.99. I know $1.99 is not a lot, but still, you can buy a TV episode (SD) for that much or a song or a different VR game, and even rent some movies on sale. So even at the low price, there is other stuff to compare it to and judge whether the entertainment value is worth the cost. I think it depends on whether you really love the visuals here. That's because, the story really is not there. So you're left with the hand-drawn visuals. I guess that's in the eye of the beholder, but I wasn't impressed that much. There were nice moments, but I was never blown away. I think it may be worth it to some just to experience this type of art in VR. But even the Van Gogh VR app that is free was more entertaining for me. I like to support the arts and this is a new medium, so I can applaud the effort, even if the execution was less than stellar.
Beautyful and unique VRrtwork. This is a short, but very beautyful and unique experience. The visuals are great, a living and charming sketch that shows you a handdrawn look on reality. And yes, you can buy a lot of garbage for € 1,99, but this is art – unique!