Introduction

Letchworth Arts Centre set itself apart from galleries in Hitchin, Stevenage and Baldock by implementing iBeacon technology to add a whole new interactive dimension to Christina Bryant’s ‘Artefacts From Forgotten Places’ exhibition.

Working with Letchworth Arts Centre, we implemented an iBeacon based project with artist Christina Bryant. Christina’s work involved selecting areas around Letchworth and treating them as archaeological digs.

Christina’s artwork was generated from the items found, but in the process Christina made a complete inventory including photographs, GPS coordinates, video and audio.

There is no way we could afford to put LCD screens, speakers and DVD players next to every single exhibit, or display all the information that Christina had to offer. The iBeacons made it possible for visitors to access far more content and get far more engaged than has ever been possible before.

- Maria Iredale, Letchworth Art Centre

Launch website

Engaging with Art

We created a cloud based platform that allowed Christina to upload all of the research material for each of the exhibit pieces.

This included video, audio, text, GPS locations of the archaeological digs. Each exhibit piece was then assigned to an iBeacon, which was hidden from view within the gallery. We also developed the accompanying App for both iPhone and iPad devices. The gallery was geo-fenced, which meant the user’s device would notify them that there was an App for this location.

Visitors where encouraged to down App and as they walked around the gallery and came within proximity of an iBeacon, an alert would show on the screen that they had discovered content for that exhibit piece.

And Launch

This newly discovered content was multi-layered allowing the user to discover all the background information to that exhibit piece; where it was found by displaying through Google maps, background text information, imagery, video and audio.

The set up of the content and the App allowed for a non-linear tour of the the gallery which users being able start or stop wherever they wished to. At the end of the tour, users could reset the App to explore again.

The Outcomes

The outcomes for this projects included:

- First commercial use of location based media using Bluetooth Low Energy iBeacons for the Gallery and Townhouse.
- Ability for the Gallery to engage with schools and invite school children to the gallery due to the interactive nature of the project.
- Great feedback from all visitors at the exhibition launch.
- Extensive real world knowledge and application in configuring iBeacons in challenging environments.

Townhouse’s innovation and enthusiasm made the project an incredibly intriguing and rewarding collaboration and I would be very excited to work with them again in the future.
Christina Bryant - Artist.

Contact us

Email hello@townhousehq.com or call 0845 504 5240

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