WINNER OF THE 2016 MUSE AWARD from the AMERICAN ALLIANCE OF MUSEUMS
In 2016, a chance encounter between Earprint and the Asian Art Museum resulted in Earprint building upon a previous project and developing an app that allows users to immerse themselves in a work of art. This collaboration between Earprint and the Asian Art Museum perfectly situated the Earprint app in an environment of creativity and interactivity that resulted in an experience that was both beautiful and exciting.
The exhibit
The Asian Art Museum positioned Earprint's app within an exhibition that would allow visitors to experience museum objects by personally interacting with them in new and exciting ways. Throughout the exhibit, visitors were invited to do things like touch ceramic pieces to learn about how they were made and look at artworks through a microscope to gain a new perspective on its materials. The entire exhibit was meant to combine the perspectives of curators, designers, conservators, and educators in creating prototypes of novel, interactive ways of participating with art in museums.
Prototyping
Because they were "prototypes," these interactive approaches were then presented to visitors, who were invited to contribute directly to how they could be improved. These adjustments were taken into consideration and put into effect quite rapidly, allowing the interactive experiences to evolve over the course of the six month exhibit. This exhibit was intended to involve the community in the iterative, responsive design process that goes into creating an exhibit and interpreting the art within.
“The prototype exhibit gave us a new framework to think about app development. We came up with the idea, released it to the public, and then modified and developed based on that. ”
the app
Earprint's app fit perfectly into this environment. The app places the Asian Art Museum's Standing Buddha under X-Ray and Ultraviolet light to reveal unique characteristics of the piece. Earprint was delighted to participate in the development of this project, as this approach to exhibit development was fully engaged with immersing the community in a unique and exciting way to interact with art.
By allowing users to engage directly with the Standing Buddha artifact, Earprint's app provided easy access to an immersive artistic experience for students, educators, and professionals alike. It put visitors in the shoes of artistic and historic investigators, and allowed them to use their senses to more deeply interact with the artifact.
The use of this app in the exhibit won the American Alliance of Museums Muse Award in 2016, and Earprint is thrilled to be currently working on another project with the Asian Art Museum because of the success of the Standing Buddha app. This experience with the Asian Art Museum also kicked off a series of projects for Earprint that revolved around immersive app experiences, and we are eager to present them to you in the near future.
