Update: After hearing others’ project ideas and reading the updates, I think my concept could morph into one of Audrey’s concepts. When I explained my original idea, Justin proposed that if users upload their own photo, that the app could apply a filter to make it match the surrounding paintings, style-wise. Audrey said that one of her concepts was to perform a style transfer onto specific artworks. I would want to make sure the user experience of this action helps them learn or engage with the art more deeply, and not that it’s just a cool trick. But I think there is something there, and it could be especially useful as an overview of the different galleries a single museum has to offer. Imagine at the front of the museum is a piece that everyone is familiar with. They can then apply the different styles, and the app could tell visitors where to go to see each style. This becomes the start of an interactive map, which I know a number of others were thinking of pursuing.

This concept allows museum visitors to fully participate in the museum experience by allowing them to showcase their artwork in a gallery.

Before going to the museum, visitors are promoted to take and upload a photo of some artwork they created. At the museum, one gallery has a number of “empty frames” of varying sizes. Visitors download an app (or use a provided tablet), and hold the screens up to the empty frames. AR technology puts the visitors’ uploaded artwork into the frames. Visitors can find their own artwork to see it in a museum. They can also browse & upvote others’ pieces.

A similar effect could also be accomplished without AR, using digital screens in the frames to flip though all the uploaded visitor artwork. This would allow the entire room to see the same piece at the same time, but it wouldn’t allow for the personalized experience that AR would. Early tests and interviews with stakeholders could confirm the best direction.

This concept was inspired by a story my dad told me. His friend wanted his artwork to be hung in the Louvre, so he brought a piece, taped it to the back of a bathroom stall door, and decided that it “hung in the Louvre.” I did the same when I visited in high school. While this concept is inspired by the Louvre, I think this would just as well at the MFA or ICA in Boston. Aspiring artists could be discovered this way, and students or hobbyists would have fun participating in the museum experience this way (like I did at the Louvre).

I haven’t used AR technology before, but I imagine the physical frames would need to be easily detected by the phone or tablet. Then the uploaded artwork would need to be distorted to fit in the frame correctly. A simple UI could allow museum visitors to scroll through artwork and upvote ones they like. There is also the artwork upload side of the project. Ideally, the upload tool would find the edges of a piece to crop correctly and could allow for some post-processing of an image to enhance lighting and contrast. Coding/AR/app skills are needed for these two parts of the project, and physical fabrication skills would be needed to create the frames.