Landscapes Carry Meaning

CLIENT

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

LOCATION

Bentonville, AR

Ideum has collaborated once again with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on an interactive that allows museum visitors to create and share their own work of art. This time, the application invites visitors to create their own remixed landscapes based on paintings of the Americas from the 1840s to the 1940s.

Visitors choose from among four base paintings, all of which have had the majority of their features edited out. Then, they drag and drop three to seven objects onto the landscape. The available objects come from the four landscapes in the interactive and fall into the categories of People and Animals, Landforms and Vegetation, Buildings, and Transportation. Visitors consider and choose a meaning for each object they add to the landscape. When they have finished, they can see their work of art in a gallery setting complete with label copy generated based on what base painting, objects, and meanings they chose. Then they can share their work of art by emailing it to themselves or posting it to Crystal Bridges’ Tumblr gallery.

The application runs on Crystal Bridges’ Ideum Presenter 46, which the museum used earlier this year for the Warhol / Wyeth interactive photo kiosk. We have also recently collaborated with Crystal Bridges Museum on State of the Art and the Frank Lloyd Wright domestic architecture timeline.

“I have unintentionally made a habit out of starting each project with IDEUM with a huge idea, short timeline and a small budget. They have exceeded our expectations on every project and delivered great hardware and software each time.”

SHANE RICHEY, DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER
CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART

Visitors drag and drop features into their landscapes.
The final painting reflects visitors' own interpretations.
New features can be drawn from several categories.