BJ Today Art Museum goes interdimensional

The Future Gallery of Beijing's Today Art Museum is now offering visitors a transcendent interactive experience. [Photo/CNTV]

What is "The Cloud"? A conceptual place where data is stored; a nebulous repository of human endeavour. It is all this, but for artists, it is also where Imagination transcends Space. The Future Gallery of Beijing's Today Art Museum is now offering visitors a transcendent interactive experience.

"I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself the king of infinite Space". So said Shakespeare's Hamlet, and so says the artist's mindset here at the "Future of Today" exhibition.

Twelve artists have each contributed two pieces of art - one tangible, and the other a virtual display on a touch-screen pad.

Viewers are invited to use the pads or simply point the camera of their mobile devices at an artwork to trigger predefined content. Then, on the screen, they will see a merged image of the virtual and the real, or even a completely new work of art.

Along with its online display of digitized art works, the museum's Future Gallery features online exhibits and 360-degree panoramic experiences.

"My piece attempts to examine the relationship between people and religion. A religion requires one's belief without the slightest doubt, but the person being questioned in my production is touched by another's fingers and then breaks into pieces. The augmented reality realized by the pad here helps visualize the process I'm describing. This is something different from previous exhibitions," said Miao Xiaochun, the artist.