GalleriesNow.net is upgrading its five-star rated virtual reality exhibitions app to offer art enthusiasts an even more immersive viewing experience of the world’s best contemporary art.
Users will now be able to use a new pinch-to-zoom feature to get a better look at individual pieces of art or sculpture and will be able to search through international exhibition listings and gallery guides to find specific shows. It will also include a ‘NearMe’ button so users can search galleries local to them, wherever they are.
The free app that was first launched in 2017 and received 25k downloads in the first week, presents regularly updated listings of over 500 public and private exhibitions in 40 cities around the world and includes 90 per cent of the world’s top 50 galleries. ArtPassport’s technology means that literally thousands of people can view each exhibition – an order of magnitude more than can make a physical visit, helping to support gallery and artist while introducing new audiences into the artworld.’
The technology works by taking 360-degree photo spheres – multiple images taken from a single viewpoint with a extremely wide-angle lens – which are then processed, joined together and viewed through a special interface, either via the app or on the website. The resulting high-res images can be panned around on a computer, viewed on a phone, or slotted into a viewer for the full VR experience.
Tristram Fetherstonhaugh, CEO and Founder of GalleriesNow said ‘We love gallery exhibitions and have always been about trying to communicate the gallery experience. VR has turned out to be the perfect way to do this. Since launching we’ve taken VR of over 800 exhibitions and we are now delighted to be launching an updated version of the app with great new functionality. We see this technology as a way to let more people visit more exhibitions – virtually’.
Gary Waterston, Director of Gagosian Gallery, London describes it as: ‘a gamechanger – helping inspire those locally to come and engage with our exhibitions whilst opening up a more in depth view of the installation to those unable to visit in person’
New Features v2
- An enhanced VR experience with new navigation, pinch zoom and access to individual artworks
- Searchable international exhibition listings and gallery guides in over 40 cities around the world, including New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Zürich, Hong Kong.
- NearMe button, letting you find art just around the corner
- The ability to ‘favourite’ certain exhibitions and receive personalised updates and notifications
Original features
- 360°VR photography as a great way to experience the gallery and make the experience more immersive
- Exclusive 360° images of exhibitions with zoom-in capability
- Exhibition details with descriptive texts
- Visitor information with maps and directions
- 360°s taken by GalleriesNow and available exclusively on the ArtPassport app and GalleriesNow.net website
- Well-established and international galleries, such as Blain|Southern and David Zwirner, as well as up-and-coming galleries like Annka Kultys
- Galleries on the app are carefully curated using GalleriesNow.net’s proprietary algorithm, and represent the leading galleries in the world
- Features new and archived exhibitions for those wanting to preview shows before attending, can’t attend or missed it completely.
ArtPassport is available iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/artpassport/id1220878305?mt=8