Snapchat has been teasing a brand new augmented reality platform on their website, including a sole countdown clock at art.snapchat.com. Many impatient Snap aficionados even went to lengths to hack Snapchat’s time feature on the countdown, essentially tricking the clock to reveal what’s on the other side.
What to Expect
What’s on the other side is an innovative, immersive art experience. Snap has been known before to be a platform that fuses the elements of virtual art technology and real-world landscapes through their series of lenses. This new AR function, however, will be much larger in scale. It will feature work by top-notch artists in various art medias – think massive art installations like the whimsical sculptures placed around cities like Chicago and New York.
Pop artist Jeff Koons will be the first of many artists whose work will come to life on the app. Koons’ past work includes his iconic pop-art balloon sculptures that have found a home in many world-class art exhibits, such as in The Broad in Los Angeles.
How It Works
Using the same concept as the maneuverable AR lenses already available on the app, this function will span across the world at specifically pinned locations. Once you reach the pinned location, you’ll be able to find it on your app and shift your camera’s focus until it appears.
The technology is very similar to the one used by Pokemon Go, where visuals only appear once you reach a very specific target location.
This cool feature will allow artists to showcase their work within a brand new form of media and introduce it to a new generation of audiences. Perhaps users will be more inclined to go outside into the real world to search for these grand landmark-esque pieces.
The platform is open to artists looking to submit their own work to be featured on the app as a literal virtual art exhibit as well.
H/T TechCrunch
