What if you could see a piece of art in your home before you bought it?
Buying an art photograph on the Internet requires a certain amount of imagination. You discover an image on your screen. You appreciate its framing, its colors, its universe. Yet, one question often remains unanswered: what will it actually look like on my wall?
This question becomes particularly important when it comes to a large-format work, a Fine Art print or a photograph presented in a custom-made frame.
Augmented reality provides a simple answer: it allows you to virtually place the work in your own home, before making your choice. The experience is therefore not about looking at the image more. It consists in looking at it differently.
A work of art is not just about its image
When you discover a photograph on a website, your screen mainly shows you its contents. It allows you to appreciate the subject, the composition and the colors. On the other hand, it hardly gives you a precise idea of its presence in your home.
A photograph of 60 × 90 cm can look imposing on a screen. Conversely, a large format of 120 × 180 cm can look surprisingly discreet when it appears in a product sheet. However, the format completely transforms the perception of a work. Augmented reality makes it possible to reduce this distance. Your wall becomes your exhibition space.
With a smartphone or tablet, it becomes possible to view a work directly in the room where you want to install it. Your living room, bedroom, office or entrance can thus temporarily become an exhibition space.
You choose the location. You position the work. You observe its relationship with the wall, the furniture and the surrounding volumes. You can then ask yourself very concrete questions.
Is the work large enough? Does the frame stand out just right with good colors? Do the colours dialogue with those of the room? These questions arise naturally when the work leaves the screen to virtually enter your environment.
Finally understanding dimensions
Dimensions are often one of the hardest things to imagine when buying art online. Augmented reality allows us to rediscover this feeling of scale. You can see the place occupied by the work and observe its balance with the elements around it.
This function becomes particularly interesting for large photographic prints. A monumental work can radically transform a space. It can become a focal point, accompany an architecture or, on the contrary, be discreetly integrated into a larger composition. The choice of format therefore deserves as much attention as that of the photograph itself.
Choosing your frame becomes more intuitive
A photograph can also change its character depending on its presentation. A black frame can enhance the contrast of an image. A lighter finish can create a softer relationship with the interior architecture.
On a screen, these differences are sometimes difficult to appreciate. Augmented reality visualization in your own home brings another level of interpretation. You can compare several possibilities and see which one best fits your space. The choice becomes less theoretical.
A more personal way to discover photography
Art photography has a particularity: it often has a very strong relationship with the gaze of the person who chooses it. The same image can evoke very different things depending on the person who looks at it. Augmented reality simply adds an extra dimension to this encounter. You no longer only discover what the photographer wanted to show. You also begin to discover what the work could become in your own space.
A photograph taken in a Tokyo street can take on a new dimension in a Geneva apartment. A landscape image can create an opening in a contemporary interior. An abstract photograph can dialogue with the lines of an architecture. The work begins to enter your daily life even before it is hung.
But nothing replaces the encounter with the real work
However, you have to keep a certain distance from technology. A digital visualization is still a simulation. It does not allow you to feel exactly the texture of a Fine Art paper. It does not perfectly reproduce the depth of a print or the subtleties of a print. Nor does it replace the encounter with a work in a gallery. The actual light, the material, the finish and the details appear differently when you stand in front of the print. Augmented reality should therefore be seen as an additional step, not a substitute.
A new way to choose a work
For a long time, buying a work online meant accepting a certain distance. We were looking at a photograph. We read the dimensions. We eventually chose a finish. Then you had to imagine the result. Today, this step can become much more concrete. Augmented reality for works of art allows you to virtually bring the work into your daily life before actually welcoming it.
