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DIA Away

Education | Museum

Balance Studios was commissioned by the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) to create several exhibits for their DIA Away mobile art tour to help encourage visitors to look at art in new ways. Artists themselves, the Balance creative team was a perfect partner for this collaborative opportunity to create thought-provoking and conversation-starting pieces that let visitors explore and interact with art in innovative and interesting ways.

Caged Brain

Art that makes you think. A brain that does the thinking. And a cage. Housed in a custom application design created by the Balance Studios Interactive Development and Animation team, the Caged Brain video questions viewers' feelings and perceptions of art. People are drawn in with an attract screen and invited to press the button to begin the video. Balance recreated the Caged Brain art as a photo-real 3D model and the video displays the piece rotating while several questions appear on screen, encouraging the viewer to contemplate how the art makes them think and feel.

Imaginary World

This interactive exhibit allows visitors to make their own version of art pieces. The application offers nine pieces to choose from, and lets visitors modify an image to create their own custom artwork. Users can crop the image, apply color filters, and add effects such as comic book and posterize (which gives the image an Andy Warhol look). Participants can work on their custom art at their own pace and share their creations by sending links of their masterpieces to their email.

In The Forest

Housed in an attractive custom application design created by Balance, an attract screen draws viewers to the exhibit which then asks questions prompting viewers to think deeper about the painting In the Forest by Heinrich Campendonk. Visitors are challenged to put themselves in the painting and understand the feelings and surroundings. After the questions, they are invited to look closer with a magnifying icon and study the work at their own pace.

The Idea

Inspire people to pause and think about art.

Services

Artists helping other artists. How much better can it get? From conception to installation, our fully engaged creative team had the know-how and the passion to bring art and technology together. Creation, innovation, collaboration–and a curious subject matter–all to make people pause, think, and let themselves have a little bit of creative fun.

The Result

The popular Detroit Institute of the Arts Away exhibit had a very successful, 5-year mobile tour to all Detroit area schools.