Overview

The National Galleries of Scotland is a family of world-class art museums that cares for, develops, and shares Scotland’s national art collection with audiences in Scotland and around the world.

Smartify partnered with the National Galleries of Scotland to create an innovative digital guide for the Ray Harryhausen exhibition, combining rare archive content with an immersive augmented reality (AR) experience. Designed to work seamlessly both in the gallery and remotely, the project enabled audiences to explore unseen materials, enjoy expert-led storytelling, and interact with iconic film artefacts in new ways.

The brief

National Galleries of Scotland wanted to create a guide to share unseen archive materials from the vast Ray Harryhausen collection and also give audiences a unique AR experience, whether at home or in the museum.

National Galleries of Scotland Ray Harryhausen Exhibit

The solution

Using the Smartify dashboard, the National Galleries of Scotland uploaded previously unseen archive materials, including videos, letters, and sketches that could not fit into the physical exhibition space. They also uploaded an audio tour narrated by film director John Landis.

Meanwhile, our team worked with Scottish animation agency Playdead to develop an AR animation of the famous skeletons from Clash of the Titans. Visitors on-site could scan the original skeleton model and watch it come to life again, while audiences at home could also play with the AR animation.

The results

Opening in October 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, the Ray Harryhausen exhibition had to offer visitors a fun (and COVID-safe) experience on-site and access from home. With Smartify already used by the museum across the permanent collection, staff were keen to use the platform to safely deliver an audio tour to visitors' smartphones without needing rented devices or touch screens.