Numerous technologies exist to enhance the experience of reality and to offer virtual extensions. The additional content we are proposing in the exhibition Twelve Hours of Daylight – X variations is fully in line with this dynamic. Indeed, NFC tags implanted in the frames offer those who wish to do so a virtual journey through a very detailed digital tree structure.
What is NFC?
When data travels wirelessly, several different protocols can be used (WIFI or Bluetooth). NFC technology is another form of device that has been developed from radio frequency identification. A microchip identification system frequently used in retail to scan items. This technology relies on very weak electromagnetic fields that can only be detected when the reading equipment is close to the chip. NFC technology operates on a frequency of 13.56 MHz, which means that it only works when the devices involved are about 5 to 10 centimetres apart.
NFC for exhibitions
Because NFC technology is more convenient to use than scanning a QR code (in this exhibition QR codes are also present on each label), it is ideal for use in public spaces, such as exhibition venues. Visitors touch the tablet on the frame to access virtual content. Thanks to this innovative device, the visitor can freely complete his visit (apprehension/understanding of a work) by accessing additional data put online on the website dedicated to the artist’s work. Thanks to this deployment, the visitor interacts in an immediate and engaging way with a virtual content that extends his look and his reflection. The NFC tags serve as a trigger for wider content on the works concerned: technical information, video, audio files, interviews, photographs, studio views, circulation of the work in other exhibitions, relay to social networks (…)
We are not dealing with a museum audio guide but rather with an incremental tree structure that contextualises the piece in a wider field, a sort of dematerialised counterpoint to a painting. As we have complete control over the digital platform that hosts the data relating to each of the NFC tags, we can increase the content as we wish and in a space of time that remains very open. Of course, it also allows us to strengthen the online presence of ATELIER LK’ each time a user engages in this virtual experience.
In conclusion, NFC technology offers the stakeholders (artist/viewer/work) an unlimited range of possibilities to enhance the experience of augmented contemplation. An opportunity that we have seized, to open up the field of possibilities… In perpetuum mobile.
