Echo, a new MMFA app that uses image recognition technology
Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
Starting today, visitors of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) can discover its brand new app, Echo which employs image recognition technology to give the public access to novel content. To kick-start the app, the Museum came up with MyMMFA, a Collection Experience Guided by our Community. In it, visitors are invited to view various artworks in a new way; specifically, by means of testimonials given by public figures and members of the MMFA staff.
Echo: a new museum mediation tool
Echo is a web-based application that users can access via a QR code during their Museum visit. Using the camera on their smartphone, they “capture” the identified artworks to pull up videos, audio files and other content. This innovative tool adds a whole new dimension to the museum experience and allows visitors to interact with the MMFA’s artworks in ways both surprising and stimulating.
MyMMFA: the first experience offered on the Echo app
The Museum team developed an experience that draws on human connection and dialogue – core themes in the fall program. Taking up the call of Chief Curator Mary-Dailey Desmarais, MMFA employees shared the MMFA works they have a particular fondness for and the reasons why. The call was then extended to public figures across different fields, who, in turn, eagerly agreed to share the special connections they feel to their favourite works in the MMFA’s collection.
The MyMMFA experience is currently offered in the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace, the Stephan Crétier and Stéphany Maillery Wing for the Arts of One World and the exhibition Ecologies: A Song for Our Planet, which brings together works from the MMFA’s collection. Over time, new voices will be added to the list, notably in the Contemporary art galleries located on Level S2 of the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion, in November.
The public is invited to share their Museum favourites on social media using the hashtag #MyMMFA.
The Echo app was co-created and co-developed by The Yellow House Innovation Lab and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
