ArtBytes is a mobile app design to help art seekers remember and share their experiences beyond the museum and the gallery space. ArtBytes employs real-time image capture and editing with augmented reality techniques to allow users to create virtual exhibitions in public spaces.

The app emphasizes continuity and dialog across a museum goer’s visits to different galleries, museums and exhibitions over time. During the visit to an exhibition, the app allows visitors to archive works of art they appreciate, in addition to specific elements within each work that are meaningful to the viewer. After the visit, the app provides opportunities for creative interaction with the specific visual elements within an art work; this opportunities include composition of new works through collages, as well as curation and presentation of these compositions to other users, in-real-life (i.e. not online) and outside of the gallery or museum space, using augmented reality techniques. The app aims to help art seekers better understand their own taste, increase access to works of art, extend art consumption activities to by engaging art seekers art making activities, and leverage crowds in helping art seekers discover new aesthetic experiences within and outside of the museum context.

ArtByte has been tested experimentally with students at CMU.  This article describes ArtBytes in greater detail.

The ArtByte is presently seeking:

• Unity Developers
• UI Designers

Keywords: Mixed Reality, Museum App, Location based services, Gesture interaction, Augmented Reality, Digital Art Creation