Due to the pandemic, many countries went on lockdown, and visiting museums physically became impossible. With modern technology in arts, you can see exhibitions while sitting on your sofa. Google Arts and Culture collaborated with over 2,500 galleries and museums worldwide to allow art lovers to immerse themselves in the art world online through virtual tours. Now one can view the history of American fashion in the time of 1740 to 1895 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Then move to Paris to enjoy the works of famous French artists at Musée d’Orsay. Then virtually travel to the Netherlands and witness incredible art pieces from the Dutch Golden Age, including the works from Rembrandt and Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

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Voyager helped Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams to continue selling their art through the pandemic by creating hyper-realistic virtual gallery settings for users to freely explore, view artwork information and register to bid.

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Live Streams

This technology is widely used in the retail sector. Now, live streams of exhibitions and concerts are also gaining popularity due to COVID. Towards the end of 2020, a famous English singer Dua Lipa streamed her concert live, and it was a vast success. According to the singer’s team, around five million people watched the event in real time. China alone brought in almost two million attendants.

Like concerts, exhibitions can also be streamed with the help of new art technologies. One example comes from Canada. Three Canadian galleries teamed up with a tech partner to organise a live stream featuring one famous painting, Wayne Gretzky #99. One gallery holds the original painting while the other two display replicas. This live stream captured the artwork and the viewers observing it. So, when visitors arrive at The Room, the gallery with the original painting, they are captured on a video together with the painting and streamed to the other two galleries. This way, the live stream did not only feature the painting, but also the people who were interacting with each other and goofing around.

Art and technology relationship: what to expect in the future

Some people are still skeptical about the future of new technology and arts. A renowned art critic and Pulitzer Prize winner, Jerry Saltz, believes that AI-generated art is "boring and dull." Despite some people’s pessimism, there are many applications of modern technology in the arts sector. It can support artists at different stages of their project’s lifecycle. And when it comes to AI, it doesn’t have the same creativity as humans (yet), but it has its unique usage. For example, after proper training, AI can imitate a style of a renowned painter from the past without adding its own touch, as humans would do.