Tintoretto2Go: hijack adverts with art + city treasure hunt

Background

How to make classical art appealing to young people?

In the celebration of the 500^th birthday of 👨🏻‍🎨 Jacopo Tintoretto, Italian Renaissance artist, we remixed classial paintings with visual recognition & augmented reality.

Concept

On Tintoretto2Go, we hijacked advertisements around the city of Cologne and Berlin by replacing them with first-class paintings. 💎 Hidden gems in these artworks were spotlit with animated 3D modelling in AR, letting the public relive the spectacles of the grand classic. What’s more? We hid them all around the city and updated every week—it’s the treasure hunt in neighbourhoods and in the streets! 🕵🏻‍♀️🕵🏽‍♂️ No matter if you unlock all of them or not, it guides you to explore Wallraf-Richartz Museum’s special exhibition ‘Tintoretto—A Star was Born’ in the end, and offers you a discount to the museum if you find them all! ✨

Hands-on

As the UX designer on this project, my role was to ensure that the entire concept and experience are fun and enjoyable, and that Renaissance art can be reanimated for a greater public.

To dive in to the classical art world, I started by conducting literature review in different languages and expert interviews. Finding out the highlights in the 🖼 licensed paintings, I scripted succinct but compelling storytelling from the artworks. The challenge I faced was to popularise fine arts while bringing the details in a common language. I had to evaluate content by how it could enrich the game experience and make it desirable.

Together with visual designers, we consolidated the narratives and produced 🌌 storyboards. I then consulted the museum curator to gather feedback and align on expectations.

Simultaneously, I had to find a pragmatic way that could allow up bring all the Renaissance treasure outside the museum walls and hide them in the city. Ad panels are good visual markers for triggering the AR game experience since they are available everywhere. However, ad panels also come in all various formats, appearances, locations, and change frequencies.</mask> This made it particularly hard to keep track of, especially in identifying unique visual markers with good visibility, while offering an **enjoyable space** and **safe location** for playing the AR game in the street. Nobody wants to be stared at by a crowd or risk being run off by a car—of course! 😬

Analysis of ad panel formats in different locations: not every panel type or spot is ideal for playing AR games in the street.

To assess different options for feasibility and worked out approaches to implement this hide-and-seek experience around the city, I worked closely with the our app developers and 3D artist on modelling, interaction, and animation. Through a loooooot of trial and error, we knitted the game through development of the app prototype.

Whether it is practical and fun as a game is up to our users to have the final say. To evaluate our AR game prototype, I conducted user tests to collect honest feedback, further honed our painting stories and interactions through, and brought improvements on our 👾 game experience. After the initial app release, I actively worked with the team to update the visual markers every week to enhance the city hunt amusement. 🏃🏻‍♂️🏃🏼‍♀️

Result

The exhibition was held in Cologne, Germany through Oct 2017–Jan 2018. As many as 99,062 visitors have found their way into Wallraf-Richartz Museum. It exceeded all expectations! 🎪

We are very pleased about the enthusiasm with which our Tintoretto exhibition was received by such a broad audience. The spectrum ranged from young people interested in art to avid Tintoretto lovers to experienced specialists from all over the world.

— Marcus Dekiert, Museum DirectorThe jubilee exhibition was later brought across the border and hosted in Musée du Luxembourg in 🇫🇷 Paris.

The jubilee exhibition was later brought across the border and hosted in Musée du Luxembourg in 🇫🇷 Paris.