Virtual participation in ukiyo-e appreciation using body motion

This paper presents a novel method of art appreciation by participating in artwork using virtual reality technology. We chose a famous ukiyo-e work titled "many people are assembled to create one good person" drawn by Kuniyoshi Utagawa in the Edo period of Japan. The painting provides an illusion that it seems a one man but shows many (over ten) persons assembled to create the one person. We developed a 3D CG game where its player can join to create the big person by virtually participating into the artwork as the part of the big person. The system enabled its players to enjoy the game with their own body movements, which extends their experience of art appreciation. This paper describes an attempt to enrich our game players' experience under very limited temporal and spatial constraints given at a contest exhibition.