Virtual Reality in Russia

(A cow in Russia, fitted with a virtual reality headset)

     I have always had an interest in virtual reality, upon doing some research on what Russia has been working on in that field I found a very peculiar article. Russian farmers have begun to fit their cattle with virtual reality headsets (no, this is not a joke). My first impression when reading through this article was that cows were starting to experiment playing virtual reality video games, similar to what people can play on a device such as an Oculus Quest, unfortunately that's not the case, however, this is still neat. The purpose of these cows wearing virtual reality headsets is that the farmers hope to see an increase in milk production. The reasoning behind this experiment is that the cows equipped with these devices would have lower anxiety, based on research from other countries, cows with lower anxiety levels tend to produce more milk. What the cows get to see are beautiful green open pastures, depicted in the summer season. These headsets aren't just your standard VR headsets that can be found on sites such as Amazon though, they were intricately designed to fit to the shape of a cow's head. Findings from this experiment noted that the cows were in an improved emotional state and that these virtual landscapes, did in fact lower their anxiety.



(One of the first works commissioned by Garage Digital, Russian Federations)

A woman by the name of  Dasha Zhukova, a resident of Russia and the founder of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, has begun a new, ambitious project titled "Garage Digital" Garage digital is a new initiative that will allow artists to commission their own digital artworks while also providing historical contexts for their older works. Garage Digital is an entirely virtual art gallery, which can be found within the walls of the physical museum. The purpose of this project is to support code within the interior of the building's walls, allowing visitors to view the original works alongside the digital perspectives of them, with detailed descriptions about the creator and the meaning behind them. The museum also plans to implement art, video game design, and computer simulations to fully immerse visitors into what could be deemed as an entirely virtual and interactive art gallery.

Wanna learn more about this incredibly awesome project and see some videos detailing the experiment, check out the link below:
https://observer.com/2019/12/vr-headsets-russian-cows-milk-production/

More information about the Garage Digital Art Gallery can be found below:
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/garage-museum-digital-platform-1202670950/