Falling in Love with Virtual Reality Art: A New Perspective on 3D Immersive Virtual Reality for Future Sustaining Art Consumption

Many art activities have been trialed in 360-degree virtual reality (VR) and this has become an increasingly representative way toward sustainable consumption of art. However, understanding audience responses to the VR art remains a matter of debate and investigation. By employing the uses and gratifications (U&G) approach, this study explores motives for and consequences of watching 360-degree VR art. The identified motives are three dimensions: pursuing learning from entertainment, pursuing social conformity, and pursuing convenience. Among the three use motives, it was found that pursuing learning from entertainment is the most significant factor influencing audiences’ transportation experience while watching 360-degree VR art, and audiences’ innovativeness functions as a moderator in the relationship between transportation and the attitude toward the VR content. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.