With 'The Met Unframed' From Verizon, the Museum Visits You

Cancel the art heist!

“The Met Unframed,” a multifaceted interactive/AR activation from Verizon and UNIT9, made for mobile devices, lets you place priceless treasures from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in your own home. Or on the street. Or in any environment you choose. As long as you’re glued to your smartphone screen when you view the paintings and sculptures, that is.

First, Emanuel Leutze’s “Washington Crossing the Delaware” traverses a bustling thoroughfare:

Next, elements of the Cloisters’ 500-year-old Unicorn Tapestries spring to life:

Aw, Corny thinks he’s a Corgi! (Hope someone brought a scoop to pick up after the little guy.)

Beyond such bits of fun, “Unframed” provides virtual tours of the Met’s galleries, where you can learn about more than 50 famous exhibits and play art-related games that unlock more content (as well as Verizon pitches).

The project touts the carrier’s 5G Ultra-Wideband service, and it’s accessible across all 4G and 5G phones. This minute-long promo provides a feel for what “Unframed” has to offer:

Geared for our pandemic age, when a leisurely day at the museum doesn’t fit into most folks’ schedule, “Unframed,” both compelling and playful, packs in a lot of material across multiple layers. At times it can feel overwhelming, demanding considerable effort to fully appreciate.

That said, the soothing, spacey graphics and ambient soundtrack feel in step with the regal museum motif. Plus, you’ll learn a lot. And it’s a kick to see the art come to life in amusing ways.

At one point, water spills onto the virtual museum floor from Frederic Edwin Church’s “Heart of the Andes”:

Grab a mop!

And here’s POTUS1 again, rushing across the river in kicky 3-D just in time for this week’s inauguration:

Sure, institutions around the world, including the Met, began boosting their online presence months ago as Covid took hold. But as a branded effort, “Unframed” leverages Verizon’s tech to boost the bandwidth, so to speak, jazzing up the notion of a guided tour with sundry bells and whistles. (If the sales pitches seem a tad artless, well, at least you don’t have to pay for a ticket.)

From the Met’s point of view, the campaign keeps the venue’s collections in the public eye and spurs interest at a time when attendance has understandably diminished. Museum director Max Holbein describes the campaign as an extension of the institution’s 150-year mission “to connect people to art and ideas, and to one another—something we’ve found to be more powerful than ever over these last months of isolation and uncertainty.”

At the same time, Verizon whets users’ appetite for 5G through an immersive product demo, says Michael Wente, head of in-house agency 140 at the telecommunications giant. “Since access to in-person art has been so limited over the last year, this felt like the perfect time to launch this experience,” he says.

CREDITS

Production Company – UNIT9
Mindy Lubert – Head of Production
Giacomo Vigliar – Executive Producer
Jason Legge – Senior Producer
Jakub Jakubowski – Games Director
Evi Nathanaili – Project Manager
Karol Goreczny – Art Director
Scott Ashmore – Technical Director
Max Rusan – Technical Lead
Luc Palombo – Lead Developer
William To – Front-end Developer
Julian Faas – Motion Designer
Mathew Borrett – 3D Environment Artist
Shaun Larkin – 3D Artist
Dani Valkova – Sound Designer
Isabelle Kim – UX Lead
Luis Chique – 3D Animator
James Stokes – QA Lead
Alex Hughes – Copywriter
Davide Bianca – Creative Director
Yifei Chai – Creative Director
Romain Demongeot – Creative Director

Verizon
Diego Scotti – EVP, Chief Marketing Officer
Andrew McKechnie – SVP, Chief Creative Officer
Mike Wente – VP, Creative Marketing & Operations
Marc Sobier – Executive Creative Director
Tofer Moran – Creative Director, Art
Melissa Avery – Creative Director, Copy
Viktor Angwald – Associate Creative Director, Copy
Gus Marulanda – Associate Creative Director, Art
Craig Ward – Design
Mike Palese – Art Director
Stephen Bashore – Senior Designer
Robert Beck – Managing Director, Integrated Production
Lizzie Haberman – Executive Producer
Jose Diaz – Senior Producer
Deb Horvath – Head of Business Affairs
Rhys Stover – Editor
David Dorsey – Animator
Anna Laguna – Animator
Andrea Huemmer – Account Director
Danny Alvarado – Associate Account Director
Alana Visconti – Account Manager
Sangeet Pillai – Director, Strategy & Planning
Jordan Weil – Senior Strategist
Andrew Shafer- Director, Brand Marketing
Baanie Singh- Mgr, Brand Marketing
Marika Shaub – Social Strategy Lead
Marc Kelly – Mgr, Social Activation
Emily Vicker – Director, Corporate Communications
Katie Magnotta – Mgr, Corporate Communications
Lizzie Angley – Mgr, Corporate Communications

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Max Hollein – Director
Kenneth Weine – Vice President, External Affairs and Chief Communications Officer
Sofie Andersen, Senior Manager of Digital Content & Editorial, Digital Department
Annie Bailis – Senior Manager of Media Relations, External Affairs
Emily Blumenthal – Educator in Charge, Education
Skyla Choi – Studio Manager, Digital Department
Kathryn Galitz – Managing Educator, Museum Teaching and Volunteer Administration, Education
Scott Geffert – General Manager for Advanced Imaging
Brinda Kumar – Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary
Claire Lanier – Senior Manager of Social Media, External Affairs
Tricia Robson – Senior Project Manager, Directors Office
Micol Spinazzi – Associate Publicist, External Affairs

Ode To Joy
Samantha Lazarus Levin, Executive Producer