Augmented Reality Experience
Kunstsilo
Making art playful for families
Services // IMMERSIVE // AUGMENTED REALITY
Challenge
Kunstsilo opened its doors in 2024. Its Norway’s most ambitious new art museum, inside a transformed grain silo in Kristiansand. They had a specific problem to solve: how do you make a contemporary Nordic art museum genuinely engaging for children?
They needed young visitors to enjoy themselves and feel connected to the art, giving parents the freedom to explore knowing their kids were occupied, not restless.
Opportunity
Create a family-first AR experience that changes how visitors engage with art – playful and game-like for children, richer and more contextual for adults.
Animating the collection
We designed a dual-track augmented reality experience that adds new dimensions to select artworks.
When visitors point their phone at an enabled piece, it responds. For the inaugural exhibition “Passions of the North” – an exploration of Nordic art spanning 1910 to 1990 – we animated select works in different ways. Harald Gierising’s mandolin player plays music. Arvid Fougstedt’s Portrait of a Boy becomes three-dimensional, letting visitors look around the figure and into his room. Franciska Clausen’s geometric composition transforms into a puzzle for children to solve.
Small floor stickers mark the route through four floors and 25 curated rooms, giving young visitors a clear path to follow.
Two journeys, one app
For Families
Animations, interactive games, Spotify playlists matched to each artwork’s mood, and videos about the artist.
For Adults
A separate tour with deeper context and more detailed information.
The playroom
The visit ends in a dedicated space where children make their own work. Using spatial AR, they build virtual environments themed around the exhibition’s urban and rural subject matter.
Adapting under pressure
Our original approach used spatial AR throughout the galleries. During testing, we found it wasn’t stable enough for high-traffic use.
Working with Kunstsilo, we switched to image recognition just before launch – keeping the experience intact while ensuring reliability.
Team
Mike van der Noord
Unity development, AR creation, Technical implementation
David Robinson
UX, app interface, visitor journey, client workshops, project management
Key results
Nearly 5,000
app downloads
AR Interactive
creation space
10
AR-enabled artworks
