American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat died in 1988 at the age of just 27. This did not prevent him from creating more than 600 paintings and 1500 drawings and from asserting himself as a leader of neo-expressionism. To do justice to this abundant work, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) had to go beyond the limits of reality.
The MMFA asked the studio Dpt. to “augment” some of the most striking works by the painter and draftsman of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent by virtually placing them back in their original environment: New York in the 1970s and 1980s. The creators of Dpt. are also artists, but of a completely different genre: their talent lies in the handling of augmented reality, a digital layer that adds multimedia content to the user’s immediate environment.
“It was important for the museum to put Basquiat’s works back in their original context, because he produced his works from what came to hand. It was not really designed to end up exhibited in a gallery or a museum, ”explains Nicolas Roy, the big boss of Dpt.
Aerosol Jazz
The studio has finally created an immersive layer for around twenty works by Basquiat exhibited at the museum, which adds explanations of his creative process.
This “immersive layer” replaces the generally neutral and hushed atmosphere typical of a place like the MMFA with a much more chaotic atmosphere of certain landmark places in the Big Apple. Something closer to the influences of the artist, who learned how to handle the pencil and colors by first cutting his teeth on graffiti, in which we find traces of his musical influences. This commands not only a change of scenery, but also a certain urban and musical sound.
“The museum wanted visitors to understand the influence of music on Basquiat’s work. So we included jazz and hip-hop, among others. It’s quite rare that you hear music in a museum. Normally, it’s a place made to be quiet,” says Nicolas Roy.
Not this time: the curious who want to relive as much with their ears as with their eyes an era marked by the emergence of spray paint on gray concrete backgrounds, just have to take a phone out of their pocket and point his camera towards the desired work. Then appear on the screen and in the headphones elements added to what is hanging on the wall.
The formula seems to hit the mark: one in five visitors plays the game, notes Nicolas Roy. That says a lot about the penetration rate of smart phones among Quebec visual arts enthusiasts… “And for us, that’s excellent news,” he says.
More than a gimmick
For Dpt., the exhibition on Basquiat, which ends on February 19, is a great showcase to illustrate that well applied, augmented reality can be used for something other than sending children hunting Pokémon in the park. “When it’s more than a gadget, people tend to want to use it,” continues Nicolas Roy.
He says he has received invitations to collaborate from other museums and other companies that have seen what the Montreal studio had produced for the Museum of Fine Arts. A sign that augmented reality is not just the business of big tech companies like Meta or Microsoft either…
“We are witnessing the birth of a new technology. It must be given time to find situations where it can be used in an interesting and relevant way. »
You also have to prepare the ground. Because precisely, the manufacturers of these phones that you have to take out of your pocket and hold in front of your eyes to access the portion of this reality that you call augmented have understood that the experience was not yet perfect.
Their solution? Incorporate into glasses, ideally as easy to wear as traditional glasses, the electronic components that will allow augmented reality to take shape before our eyes in a more literal way.
The first augmented reality glasses are expected any moment now, no later than 2024. Studio Dpt. is ready to take up the challenge. The Museum of Fine Arts will no doubt want to host more exhibitions that exploit it.
A resolutely avant-garde artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, if he were still alive today, would perhaps have already adopted it himself.