From Physical to Virtual: Research on Art Exhibition Paradigm, Art History Inheritance and Intelligent Aesthetics in the New Era

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-737-8_12How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Virtual Exhibition; Intelligent Aesthetics; Digital Art; Cultural Economy; Art History Transmission; AIGC; Platform Economy; Digital Humanities; NFT; Metaverse Art

Abstract

In the context of rapid digital transformation, the integration of artificial intelligence, extended reality, and platform technologies is fundamentally reshaping the paradigms of art exhibitions, the transmission of art history, and the formation of aesthetic experience. This study systematically examines the transition from physical, space-centered exhibition models to data-driven and platform-based virtual environments, highlighting the emergence of decentralized, interactive, and globally accessible exhibition forms. By analyzing the evolution of virtual exhibition typologies, including immersive XR exhibitions, metaverse-based art spaces, and online digital museums, the research reveals how audience engagement is reconstructed through participatory mechanisms and user-generated content. Furthermore, the study explores the transformation of art historical transmission in the digital age, emphasizing the role of digital humanities, knowledge graphs, and artificial intelligence in enabling computable, visualized, and cross-temporal narratives of art history. In parallel, the concept of intelligent aesthetics is introduced to explain the shift from human-centered aesthetic judgment to algorithmically mediated and human–machine collaborative creation processes. From a cultural economy perspective, the paper investigates the reconfiguration of value creation and distribution mechanisms in digital art markets, including platform-based revenue models, NFT ecosystems, and the growing significance of user participation in co-creating cultural value. Based on these analyses, the study proposes an integrated three-layer analytical framework encompassing technological infrastructure, cultural logic, and economic systems, offering a comprehensive approach to understanding the interplay between virtual exhibitions, art historical reconstruction, and intelligent aesthetics. The findings contribute to expanding theoretical discourse in digital cultural economy and provide practical insights for museums, creative industries, and policy development in the era of intelligent media.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yanan Zhu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/18
TI  - From Physical to Virtual: Research on Art Exhibition Paradigm, Art History Inheritance and Intelligent Aesthetics in the New Era
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Art Design and Digital Technology (ADDT 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 74
EP  - 91
SN  - 2352-538X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-737-8_12
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-737-8_12
ID  - Zhu2026
ER  -