A while back, EyeEm held their own small competition for coders to create their own photography app. One of the finalists was Rooms–an app designed to use virtual reality and give the viewer a similar experience to being in an actual art gallery.
Pretty cool, huh? If you’re the type that loves visiting museums and galleries to browse art and check out great photography, you’ll probably enjoy this app once it actually hits the market.
Lorenz Aschoff and Dario Penic were the two who developed the app together. “We wanted to experiment with virtual reality as a new medium for consuming photography. We work a lot with digital photography in the web, but also love to spend our time in photo galleries.” says Dario in an email to the Phoblographer. “There are fantastic spaces around the globe, hugely varying from country to country. We wanted to make this accessible utilizing new technological possibilities – essentially make the user travel around the world within seconds.” Dario cites that the inspiration came from viewing short films in virtual reality.
At the moment, it’s a short VR experience that makes you view images in a similar way that you would if you stood in the center of a room in a gallery. With time, they’re considering expanding it to other albums or user profiles and more spaces, but for now itâs locked to just four.
However, this allows someone almost limitless options with the right creative ideas. Gallery spaces aren’t only about the work, but also about the space itself along with the lighting. “Of course, itâs not really comparable to the real thing – but it brings a lot of similarities. Youâd be surprised! It definitely goes beyond how photography is displayed online nowadays.” states Dario.
