• by Colin Kirkland , July 22, 2024

Following its history of blending fine art with mixed-reality experiences, Snapchat has partnered with Lincoln Center to help artists bring their sculptural works to life via the social media company's custom location augmented reality (AR) lens technology.

“Ghost Variations” is a new exhibition featuring the collaborative work of creative technologist Alexis Zerafa and Sophie Kahn, a digital artist and sculptor based in Brooklyn.

The installation “examines the relationship between the arts and our mental wellbeing,” focused on visualizing mental health and sound through a Snapchat AR Lens, according to the Lincoln Center, which will present the project as part of its Festival Orchestra season.

"The primary subject of 'Ghost Variations' is 19th-century composer Robert Schumann, who, in the final years of his life at a psychiatric asylum, relied on the music of J.S. Bach as he navigated his deteriorating mental health," the performing arts center explains. “The busts of Schumann, Bach, and a range of contemporary models, are rendered via larger-than-life augmented reality sculptures.”

In creating the virtual works, Khan played Schumann's music underwater, recorded the waveforms and then mapped them onto heads "as a visual embodiment of the way that we listen to music."

Accessing the installation through the Snapchat app, guests are able to look through the eyes of Khan's representations of these animated historical figures, which move with the frequency of sound in the space.

Snap has been fusing its AR lens technology with traditional and alternative art scenes for years.

Since 2021, Snap has celebrated the International Day for Monuments and Sites in partnership with The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), unearthing a series of AR monuments per its Monumental Perspectives initiative.

This year, the company partnered with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) with an AR try-on element included in the museum's latest exhibition of 20th and 21st-century women's clothing in the U.S.

Snap has worked with celebrated modern artists including Jeffrey Koons, Damien Hirst, KAWS and more on various AR art activations.

Ghost Variations is viewable at The Lincoln Center and globally on Snapchat through August 10.