> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.urgentmatter.press/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Immersive tech and A.I. fuel a rise in participatory art - URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/immersive-tech-and-a-i-fuel-a-rise-in-participatory-art/ - Published: 2026-10-26T03:52:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-26T03:52:52.000Z - Description: Immersive shows taught people to step inside art. Now, cultural venues increasingly stage work the audience helps make. - Author: Adam Schrader - Tags: Opinion, Science and Technology, #public-access Lighthouse Immersive formed in Ontario in 2019 to “introduce a new form of art into North America,” according to its president, Corey Ross, in a sworn declaration filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware in July 2023. Its first show, “Immersive Van Gogh,” projected the painter's work in 360 degrees across 500,000 cubic feet at a former newspaper printing plant in Toronto. During pandemic lockdowns, the company sold out shows "seven days a week and months in advance for almost an entire year" and operated "at a significant profit" in 2021, Ross said. It grew to more than 30 entities attempting to produce shows in about 20 venues. As cultural venues reopened after the pandemic, the immersive art form “lost its novelty and patrons had other options," Ross said. Sales of the company's newer shows fell to 10% of Van Gogh sales. Lighthouse applied for creditor protection in Ontario and Chapter 15 protection in Delaware that July. [Add Urgent Matter on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=urgentmatter.press&ref=urgentmatter.press) Since then, cultural venues and producers have staged work that increasingly asks audiences to help create it. Immersive technology, including virtual and augmented reality, has helped teach audiences to step inside art and expect to have fun. Public unease about artificial intelligence has also helped. ### The immersive boom Tokyo's teamLab Planets drew 2,412,495 visitors in 2023, more than the 1,686,766 who visited Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum that year, [teamLab said](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240709556561/en/teamLab-Planets-TOKYO-Recognized-by-GUINNESS-WORLD-RECORDS-as-the-most-visited-museum-single-art-group-in-the-world.-A-Massive-Athletics-Forest-to-Newly-Open-in-Early-2025?ref=urgentmatter.press). The collective describes much of its work as co-creation. "An artwork is created when people create something together with others," it says on its website. Virtual reality art has a growing showcase in Venice. The film festival's extended reality section, Venice Immersive, went from [43 projects from 19 countries](https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/official-line-venice-immersive-2022?ref=urgentmatter.press) in 2022 to [68 projects from 26 countries](https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/venice-immersive-selection-and-competition-announced-0?ref=urgentmatter.press) this September, a 58% increase. In Brooklyn, "Masterpieces: A Virtual Experience of the Museo del Prado" walks visitors in headsets through five paintings at Powerhouse Arts, ending with Hieronymus Bosch's *The Garden of Earthly Delights* staged as a rave. "You should leave the experience feeling good. That was always the intention," Carla Prat, the creative lead at ACCIONA Cultura who pitched the show to the Prado, [told Urgent Matter](https://www.urgentmatter.press/prado-vr-show-masterpieces-takes-visitors-inside-paintings-that-cant-leave-madrid/). Augmented reality has entered flagship museums mostly as a guide to existing works, including a [Louvre tool](https://www.louvre.fr/en/explore/life-at-the-museum/the-incredible-unknowns-of-the-louvre-augmented-reality-gives-new-life-to-masterpieces?ref=urgentmatter.press) built with Snapchat in February. The immersive model has struggled. Ross said "multiple competitors entered the market with competitive prices." Lighthouse Immersive Inc.'s ticket sales fell from about CA$607,000 a month in 2022 to about CA$14,900 a month from January to May 2023, management-prepared statements attached to the declaration show. WNDR Museum [closed its Boston and Chicago locations](https://www.urgentmatter.press/wndr-museum-is-closing-both-of-its-u-s-locations/) this summer. Contractors have sued Superblue Miami over unpaid invoices. And a landlord has sued a Paradox Museum location in New Jersey for rent. ### Audiences become part of the work Participatory art is not new. At *18 Happenings in 6 Parts* at New York's Reuben Gallery in 1959, Allan Kaprow gave the audience instructions on when to sit, move between rooms and applaud, [Tate says](https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/h/happening/happening?ref=urgentmatter.press). For his 1992 show at 303 Gallery, Rirkrit Tiravanija cooked curry and gave it away to visitors, a work that the [Museum of Modern Art said](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/147206?ref=urgentmatter.press) invites viewers "to step out of their habitual roles as observers and become participants." The scale and setting have changed, influenced by immersive art. Participatory work now fills touring museum retrospectives, art fair floors, concert halls and city streets. Tate Modern's "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind," which opened in London in 2024, was described in Tate's [annual report](https://tate.org.uk/documents/2052/E03107837%5FHC%5FTate%5FGallery%5FARA%5F2023-24%5Fcompressed.pdf?ref=urgentmatter.press) as "hugely popular." It traveled to Düsseldorf and Chicago before closing October 11 at The Broad in Los Angeles, where visitors tied wishes to olive trees for *Wish Tree for Los Angeles* and hammered nails into *Painting to Hammer a Nail*, [the museum said](https://www.thebroad.org/art/special-exhibitions/yoko-ono-music-mind?ref=urgentmatter.press). The Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Felix Gonzalez-Torres: The Spaces Between," planned for June 2027, will include a spill of gold candies and a stack of printed paper that visitors can take, [the museum said](https://www.metmuseum.org/en/press-releases/felix-gonzalez-torres?ref=urgentmatter.press). The art fair Work in Progress is built on participation. It debuted in Mexico City in February and brought 50 artists to midtown Manhattan in June to make and sell work in front of visitors. People there [handed Urgent Matter](https://www.urgentmatter.press/at-the-work-in-progress-art-fair-everyone-keeps-handing-you-things/) chalk, string, children's magnetic letters and balloon animals. Caleb Leak's "Activities for Humans" starred his cavapoo, Momo. Urgent Matter spoke questions into a laptop. With Leak's help, Momo pawed the keyboard and generative A.I. turned her keystrokes into replies. Asked why the installation was so interactive and kid-friendly, the generated reply read: "If it feels like play, that's because play is the whole point." In a curtained room at the fair, the artist Ventiko styled nude visitors into tableaux vivants and photographed them for *In Fieri*. She [told Urgent Matter](https://www.urgentmatter.press/ventiko-stages-nude-tableaux-at-work-in-progress/) the idea was that strangers could "come together and we make an artwork that's momentarily peaceful and beautiful and completely removed from everything else in the world." In Bushwick, the photographer Eva Mueller has photographed nearly 300 sitters for "Wall of Emotions." Each sitter writes down an emotion, and the handwritten word [becomes part of the portrait](https://www.urgentmatter.press/artist-gives-epstein-survivors-believe-survivors-t-shirts/). At a February 20, 2027, concert at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, the Experiential Orchestra plans to invite listeners to write down how war has touched their lives, [Urgent Matter reported](https://www.urgentmatter.press/experiential-orchestra-asks-audiences-to-share-how-war-has-touched-their-lives/). Music director James Blachly will read some aloud. Nearly 2,000 volunteers ages 3 to 98 stitched "America's Tapestry," 13 embroidered panels depicting overlooked figures of the American Revolution, its creator, Stefan Romero, [told Urgent Matter](https://www.urgentmatter.press/america-tapestry-stitches-revolution-unsung-figures-muscarelle/). Museums and historical societies from New Hampshire to Georgia hosted public stitching sessions. Romero said embroidery was "a very public act" in the 18th century. "It's become somewhat of an isolationary act," he said. St. Ann's Warehouse and The Walk Productions [recruited 150 New Yorkers](https://www.urgentmatter.press/fifty-buffalo-puppets-roam-brooklyn-manhattan-streets-september/) to perform inside 50 life-size buffalo puppets for "Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi," a September procession through Brooklyn and Manhattan. On the Lower East Side, Pablo Helguera built *Fonoteca*, a Latin music listening archive at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, from vinyl collections New Yorkers lent or donated. Visitors can handle most of the records. In April, the theater company PlayCo brought Basel Zaraa's *Dear Laila* to Stand4 Gallery in Bay Ridge's Little Palestine, [Urgent Matter reported](https://www.urgentmatter.press/in-bay-ridge-little-palestine-dear-laila-reconstructs-lost-home/). Built for one visitor at a time, it centered on a model of Zaraa's childhood home in Damascus's Yarmouk refugee camp, which has since been destroyed. Visitors listened to Zaraa narrate on a Walkman and turned the pages of a family photo album. He described his grandmother sprinkling salt over the children's heads to keep evil away, and visitors took a matchbox of salt home. The exhibition also included a separate wish tree modeled on Ono's. In Los Angeles, artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç opened Dataland, a museum devoted to A.I. art, in June. Visitors wear biosensors that track their heartbeats, and sensors follow them through the rooms, which [the museum said](https://dataland.art/exhibitions/machine-dreams-rainforest?ref=urgentmatter.press) allows "each visitor's presence to influence the evolving sensory landscape." ### Audiences say they want fun and connection In LaPlaca Cohen's 2017 [Culture Track study](https://culturetrack.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/CT2017-Top-Line-Report.pdf?ref=urgentmatter.press) of 4,035 U.S. respondents, 81% named having fun as a reason they took part in cultural activities, more than any other reason. In the study's [2021 wave](https://culturetrack.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/CCTT-Key-Findings-from-Wave-2.pdf?ref=urgentmatter.press), which drew about 78,000 respondents, 54% chose fun as something they wanted more of in their lives and 37% chose connection with others. Eventbrite said attendance at local art walks on its platform rose 49% in the U.S., and the number of “sip & needlework” events rose 87%, between the 12 months ending July 2024 and the 12 months ending July 2025\. “Consumers are trading passive attendance for active participation,” the company said in a [January report](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260114088488/en/Eventbrites-Inaugural-Social-Study-Report-Reveals-the-Reset-to-Real-How-Gen-Z-and-Millennials-Are-Redefining-Live-Experiences-in-2026?ref=urgentmatter.press). In a survey of 4,051 adults ages 18 to 35 in the U.S. and U.K. conducted for Eventbrite in July 2025, about a third said they hoped for more ways to “participate actively, not just watch” at events, [the company said](https://www.eventbrite.com/social-study-trends/?ref=urgentmatter.press). In a 2025 survey, 41% of frequent museum-goers under 40 without children said places to “create together,” such as arts and crafts, would help them connect with the people they visit with, compared with 19% of those 60 and older without children, [Wilkening Consulting reported](https://www.aam-us.org/?p=162468&ref=urgentmatter.press) for the American Alliance of Museums. ### Public unease about A.I. Surveys show the public worries that artificial intelligence will erode human connection. In a [Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/09/17/how-americans-view-ai-and-its-impact-on-people-and-society/?ref=urgentmatter.press) of 5,023 U.S. adults in June 2025, 50% said A.I. would worsen people's ability to form meaningful relationships. Only 5% said it would improve it. Pew [also found](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/17/from-political-speeches-to-songs-how-would-americans-react-if-they-found-out-ai-was-involved/?ref=urgentmatter.press) that 49% of Americans would like a painting less if they learned A.I. made it, including 66% of adults under 30. Pope Leo XIV, who [has warned](https://www.urgentmatter.press/pope-leo-builds-the-churchs-case-that-an-a-i-output-is-not-art/) that A.I. could turn people into "passive consumers of unthought thoughts," told artists and curators at the Vatican on October 2 that "algorithms lack the spark of the human." Two Denver Art Museum staff members, Lauren Thompson and Stefania Van Dyke, [wrote this spring](https://www.aam-us.org/2026/05/09/a-colossal-mirror-museums-as-a-refuge-for-the-real-in-the-age-of-ai/?ref=urgentmatter.press) in the American Alliance of Museums’ *Exhibition* journal that museums “will continue to provide visitors with experiences that resist replication or simulation by machines.” “Increasingly it seems, the power of museums may lie in their ability to showcase and nurture what is unabashedly human,” they wrote. But some artists have made A.I. itself the subject of participatory work. At the Michigan State University Broad Art Museum, Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm's *Synthetic Sirens*, built with generative machine-learning models, ran through July 12 as "a participatory dialogue with visitors," [the museum said](https://broadmuseum.msu.edu/exhibition/synthetic-sirens?ref=urgentmatter.press). The museum's page for the show asks, "What do we lose when A.I. patterns replace physical presence?" *Urgent Matter is reader-supported. Please* [*consider subscribing*](https://www.urgentmatter.press/36-antiquities-returned-to-syria-including-13-seized-from-the-met/#/portal) *to support independent arts journalism.*