Is this a prototype for the museum website of the future?
The Getty Museum just posted a web feature about its Augsberg Display Cabinet, made circa 1630, a centerpiece of its newly redesigned Medieval and Renaissance sculpture and decorative arts galleries. It uses “augmented reality” to allow online visitors to explore the work. A two-dimensional image would have fallen flat, so to speak, for an item described this way:
Each of the four sides of this cabinet opens to reveal an unexpectedly complex series of drawers. Collectors from the early 1600s would have used cabinets of this kind to store such rare and exotic objects as medals, gems, or shells.
The cabinet, however, was conceived as a work of art in its own right. Various masters would have executed the cabinet’s diverse decoration, although only one can be named: the Dutch carver Albert Jansz. Vickenbrinck signed several of the fruitwood reliefs on one side with his monogram, ALVB. Each drawer is richly embellished in a variety of techniques and materials showing biblical, allegorical, historical, and mythological subjects. These include the symbols of the Passion, Judith and Holofernes, the contest of Apollo and Marsyas, the deaths of Cleopatra and Lucretia, and two Renaissance-style portrait medallions. The number of subjects in which women figure prominently may have served a cautionary or moralizing function, while the religious themes express a concern for Christian virtue.
Part of the website display is traditional. Choose an image you want to see from a list of ten on the right, click on the image, and you go to a close-up view.
The new website feature is interactive, and was developed by the Getty:
The AR feature allows users to experience the Augsburg Cabinet via a 3-D object overlay on a live video feed from the viewer’s webcam–in this case, a simulation of the cabinet. The model spins, tilts, and responds as the viewer interacts with it, creating the sense of participation. This experience is caused both by the viewer’s presence in the live video along with hand-eye engagement used to control the cabinet’s movement.
The result is a step forward, no doubt, though it feels a bit primitive to me — kind of a first step to what will be possible.
Well, the last statement there was a misfire, because despite exploring the Getty site, I hadn’t found the augmented reality link. Please see comment below. Unfortunately, when I went to try it, it appears I need a webcam, which I don’t have.
So, readers, you try it, and post your reviews as comments.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Getty Museum