In the United States and across the globe, most museums have closed their doors since mid-March. As a result, many museums, which have shifted their efforts towards digital engagement, are planning to include remote engagement opportunities as a long-term fixture of their offerings. While many are planning to reopen in the future, re-welcoming visitors is likely to be a gradual process with reduced capacity and new restrictions. In preparation for slow re-openings, organizations are continuing to plan virtual events and immersive digital experiences for those audiences who cannot travel, aren’t able to gain entry into a museum at limited capacity, or are hesitant due to the potential risks of social interactions.
In response to the new demand for immersive digital museum experiences, Cuseum is excited to announce the release of a new Augmented Reality (AR) feature that virtually transports famous artworks from museums into people’s homes, along with groundbreaking research on the neuroscience of how the brain perceives art through AR, VR, and other digital forms as compared to the original artwork.
What is AR “Museum From Home”?
Through Augmented Reality (AR), the new “Museum From Home” feature will allow users of Cuseum-powered apps to experience the artworks from the comfort of their homes.
Users will be able to virtually place paintings and other objects onto their walls and revel in artworks that are typically only available to view inside a museum setting.
Demo of new AR experience.
How Does AR Extend the Museum Experience?
Monitoring brain activity while viewing art.
Accompanying the release of this new “Museum From Home” feature, we are thrilled to reveal the newly published results of a 10-month long research study on the neurological perceptions of original artworks as compared to their Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and digital versions. This groundbreaking research supports the claim that AR and VR can provide an equally immersive aesthetic experience on par with that of viewing the authentic, original artwork in person at a museum or gallery. This study was conducted by a team of neuroscientists and advised by Dr. Pawan Sinha, a world-renowned neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The researchers examined the emotive responses to original artworks versus their digital equivalents. According to the research team, the “current EEG findings would suggest that aesthetic experience is not denigrated by a digital interface representation and, in fact, digital reproductions in the case of augmented reality are shown to improve the magnitude of brain activity compared to the viewing of original works of art.”
Experiencing art in Virtual Reality.
This study was inspired by ongoing questions about art and aesthetics, which have been disrupted by recent developments in technology. Ever since Walter Benjamin published his influential essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” in 1935, the art, academic, and cultural world have been fascinated by what makes art “real.” Benjamin’s core claim is that people can only perceive the “aura” of artworks by standing before the original. Between 1935 and 2020, however, the technology used to recreate and display artworks has evolved in profound ways. With the advancements in AR and VR, it has become possible to experience art through realistic virtual forms. For example, a famous van Gogh painting can now be viewed in seemingly perfect detail through a VR headset, and each week offers another news headline of museums experimenting with immersive XR technology.
We are excited by the results of this research, which suggest that AR is an enormously promising medium in increasing high-quality access to art to people across the globe. Based on these findings, Cuseum’s new “Museum from Home” feature has the potential to offer digital visitors a powerful experience from inside their own homes. Such immersive experiences are enabled by a handheld mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet, allowing the most famous artworks of past and present to reach the homes of visitors who might never otherwise have access.
During these challenging and uncertain times, nothing is more important to us than serving our partners and the museum community at large. We couldn’t be more excited to bring this new AR experience to museums across the world, along with research-backed support for the great value and importance of making art and culture open and accessible to the eyes, minds, and hearts of people all around the world.
Looking to learn more? Reach out to hello@cuseum.com today!