Artifact vs The Post

Behind every piece of art is a multitude of stories. The Artifact App brings the stories behind artworks to life using augmented reality. It allows museum curators to enrich their exhibitions with digital content that is delivered via smartphones and tablets and is seamlessly blending into the physical surroundings of the displayed objects. In an interactive and playful way, the app complements the rich collections of glass art shown at the Vitromusée Romont with multimedia information such as images, audio, videos, animations and special effects.

This long-standing commitment has resulted in a considerable art collection, which currently comprises around 470 works. Despite its cultural significance, the collection is largely inaccessible to the general public. To address this, Swiss Post has partnered with the Game Technology Center at ETH Zürich in a research collaboration, exploring how augmented reality and virtual game characters can create an engaging and modern way for people to experience the art collection. Together, they have developed the mobile app "The Post - Art collection", in which augmented reality characters present various works of art to users in an interactive, playful format. In the app, users unlock a new work of art every day, test their knowledge with an art quiz and receive stars for correct answers. This approach - revealing new works of art every day, like an advent calendar - encourages curiosity to get to know the collection and the works of art it contains better during entertaining visits to the app. Users are motivated to return to the app on a regular basis.