The ‘Beautiful Journey’ Opens at Santa Barbara Museum of Sensory & Movement Experiences 

An exciting and thought-provoking exhibition opens on Saturday, February 22, at the Art Fund’s Museum of Sensory & and Movement Experiences (MSME). If you haven’t been to the museum to see its regular collection, I encourage a visit to their space in La Cumbre Plaza. If you’ve been lucky enough to have found the museum already, another visit will provide new rewards.

The latest immersive installation at the museum is titled Beautiful Journey, and it places you in fantastical landscapes while guiding you on a peaceful mediation by mixing VR technology, renderings by gifted artists and an exploration in consciousness and psychology. Visitors are offered a comfortable chair, fitted with the latest VR headsets, and instructed on their use. Take time to listen to your breathing and relax while taking in the scenery, or you can rush past in search of the next chapter. Like life, it’s up to you.

I was left alone within the experience that lasted approximately 20 minutes, but it seemed much shorter. I was encouraged to concentrate on my breathing and my inner voice when asked gentle questions from the virtual guide about meaningful moments in my own life’s journey. Without spoiling the adventure, I can tell you that you enter the world at birth and then are placed in a boat on a river or sometimes a sea and float peacefully through three stages of life: childhood, career, and family, then everything after that. Culminating in a riveting near-death experience, the environment slowly dissolves, and you see your real-time environment around you. I left feeling a renewed sense of gratitude and connection with people who played important roles in my life. Over the following week, I found myself revisiting the questions posed in the Journey and contemplating my answers more introspectively while also gaining insights into my behaviors. It’s been a while since a work of art has moved me like that.

Beautiful Journey is brought to you by Peter Brill and a team of phenomenally talented musicians, technologists, and artists. Brill envisioned Beautiful Journey years ago but started in earnest with the team in June 2023. The team includes David Grossman, who has been a music supervisor for more than 1,000 hours of television and ultimately led the Santa Barbara Symphony after serving as executive vice president for the Grammy organization, composed the score. Simon Quiroz, the project’s producer and artistic director, is an independent filmmaker who is currently leading CSU Channel Islands’ Art Department, where the focus is on new technologies and integrating AI tools. Juggling the artistic and technological aspects of the project is Oriana Sanders as production coordinator. Sanders also serves as the Brill Family Foundation’s executive director. Brill himself is a decorated psychiatrist, founding and directing the Center for the Study of Adult Development in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Brill is also a best-selling author and a sought-after guest in radio and television programs. Beautiful Journey was released on the Meta Quest platform in November 2024. 

Passionate about the ways art and technologies might be combined to create immersive experiences that can heighten self-awareness and elevate consciousness, the Brill Family Foundation sees Beautiful Journey as its first step within the growing field of immersive experiences in psychological therapies. In an art world in which artists are increasingly absorbing new technologies, breaking away from the gate-kept “white cube” of museums and galleries while taking their messages directly to the public, Beautiful Journey not only fits in this new artistic paradigm but is leading its sector.

Brill and the team have created believable worlds and solid meditation guidance that leave you with a powerful message to not only listen, but also to respect and understand your inner voice as you choose one path over another throughout your life. Amid the anxiety surrounding powerful downsides of XR and AI, Brill and his team have produced a strong example of the benefits that new technologies can provide in artistic, qualified, responsible, and purposeful hands. 

Beautiful Journey opens February 22, with a free opening reception and artist talk at 5 p.m. The installation will continue to be on view at MSME in La Cumbre Plaza (120 S. Hope Ave., Ste. F119). For more information and hours, see artsfundsb.org/programs/msme.