LONDON.- GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design are collaborating with Blippar, the augmented reality app, for their current exhibition KINO/FILM: Soviet Posters of the Silent Screen. This is the first time that the app has been used within an exhibition space by a UK gallery.
Using Blippar, visitors to KINO/FILM are able to experience an enhanced interactive experience created by GRAD’s curatorial team. After downloading the free app onto a smart phone, visitors can transform their device into an exhibition audio guide, and by directing the phone at selected works further information on their historical and cultural background is displayed.
Visitors can listen to the GRAD curators’ insights on the aesthetics and symbolism behind the rare poster designs and on the history of their commission and production; and learn how the cinematic innovations of 1920s filmmakers were reflected in the designers’ visual vocabulary. Quotes from contemporary Soviet critics serve to illustrate the reception of the films and posters at the time and offer a further dimension to the discussion.
With Blippar users can share the artwork on Twitter and Facebook and buy reproductions of these striking posters at the GRAD shop. For international visitors who may be unable to visit the exhibition, all of the sound bites are available online on GRAD’s SoundCloud account, adding to the gallery’s ever-expanding archive of academic and educational resources. https://soundcloud.com/grad-london
Elena Sudakova, Director of GRAD says: “GRAD’s exhibitions are underpinned by extensive academic research and Blippar has proved a successful platform through which to share this research in a concise and digestible way. We are very excited to work with the app in communicating to visitors the fascinating histories and individual stories behind the posters and films currently on display at the gallery. Digital media is constantly gaining in breadth and importance and we are keen to utilise its benefits to engage with our visitors. The app brings a new dimension to the show and helps to bring to life these dynamic designs.”
Jess Butcher, CMO and Co-Founder of Blippar added: “Blippar is excited to be working with GRAD on such an innovative application of our technology and we are very excited to see the public's reaction. Image-recognition and augmented reality technologies offer up huge opportunities for the art world by enabling the 'unlocking' of physical art work with interactive experiences related to them, simply by looking at them through the device that's already in the visitor's pocket. We hope visitors enjoy the exciting interaction that 'blipping' will now enable at GRAD."
