Intel + Smithsonian American Art Museum are teaming up to let you take an immersive dive into some of the USA’s most treasured art and history through virtual reality (VR). Together, they are planning to transform the future of education and the museum experience by digitising and providing broader 3D access to collections from the Smithsonian starting with the exhibition, “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man.”
FoldHaus, Shrumen Lumen, 2016. Photo by Rene Smith.
“Virtual reality will bring about cutting-edge computing experiences and accelerate new possibilities for how people will explore and interact with the world around them. As the technology evolves, immersive museum experiences will become the norm. Bridging physical and digital worlds to study American art in classrooms around the globe is just a first step in exploring what is possible when we combine the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s passion for education with Intel’s innovation.”
– John Bonini, Intel Corporation
Although more than 30 million people come through the doors of the Smithsonian’s museums every year, hundreds of millions will never be able to visit in person. Virtual reality creates new opportunities for those people to access Smithsonian collections, research and educational resources regardless of their ability to physically visit a museum or research center. With recent advances in digital technology, the Smithsonian can share its exhibitions with art lovers across the globe in a fully immersive way.
The partnership was introduced at Virtual RealityLos Angeles began with the exhibition, “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man,” which showcased how Intel technology and virtual can transform the future of the museum experience. The ultimate vision is to share this technology across the Smithsonian Institution and further digitise more of its 157 million objects.
Intel’s advanced technologies will accelerate Smithsonian’s existing process of 3D digital capture and increase access to its collections with the help of powerful 8th Generation Intel Core processors, cloud-based platforms and more. The shared goal is to increase and encourage 24/7 access to the museum, affording educators, other museums and public audiences the opportunity to become immersed in some of America’s most treasured collections as if they were standing in the galleries themselves.
In 2018, Intel will release “Beyond the Walls: A Smithsonian American Art Museum Experience.” This original interactive experience premiered at CES 2017 as a pilot program to this partnership. It features VR-enhanced artworks by notable American sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Hiram Powers, painter Frederic Edwin Church and contemporary media artist Alex Prager.
