You’re inside the Magi Chapel, staring up at the Renaissance frescoes, boldly colored and intricately detailed. The scene is all-consuming; it surrounds you and pulls you in. Now, take off your virtual reality goggles. You’re in the Williams Center for the Arts attending art history professor Eric Hupe’s Italian Renaissance class. Hupe and his research student Caitlyn Carr ‘23 are at the forefront of the movement toward the use of virtual reality (VR) in art history education.

According to Hupe, VR can make art more accessible in a field that “often relies on travel to physical sites to see spaces that can only be experienced, like paintings that are made to be viewed in the architecture.” However, students can only experience these sites in VR if they have been properly cataloged. That’s where Hupe and Carr’s recent expeditions come into play.