Imagine you’re walking through a fine arts museum. For the sake of specificity, let’s say the Tate Britain museum. You admire the works curated from the 1500s, all the way to the present day. You behold a sculpture of a bust, when suddenly something peculiar happens. Facebook thumbs up start popping up (quite literally, with the sound of a “pop”) all around it, along with an orb halo surrounding its head—something visually similar to a certain hero from Overwatch. These digital infiltrations should clash with the museum itself. But in an experimental mixed reality video from animator Jack Sachs and Blink Inc, they instead feel the opposite: right at home.
Shhh! is a part-animated, part-live action tour of the Tate Britain museum, where cute computer generated critters and objects overlay the museum’s own fixtures. Sometimes complementing them, sometimes replacing them entirely. A tall blue balloon entices you in, much like a used car dealership. Adorable cabbages spill out of paintings. Clay-like figures with cartoonish sensibilities take the place of classical sculptures. Sachs flips the Tate Britain museum, that may otherwise juxtapose his work, into a fulfilling setpiece for his animations.
Shhh!’s digital happenings don’t merely overlay the environment they frolic in, as they might in an augmented reality. Instead, they interact with the physicality of it—whether through the sounds that evoke from the fixtures, or the literal interactions (see above: cabbage frenzy). It wouldn’t be hard to imagine a 360-degree version of Sachs’ fruitful work. Whether merely in virtual reality, or with a Hololens or other mixed reality headset strapped to your skull.
You can watch Shhh! below, and follow Sachs on Twitter for news of future projects.
(via The Creator’s Project)
