Art Authority Sponsoring TidBITS
We want to welcome as our latest long-term sponsor Art Authority, co-founded by Alan Oppenheimer. He went from being one of the creators of AppleTalk, running an Internet service provider, and developing a Mac firewall to creating iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV apps whose mission is to make all the world’s art accessible to everyone. Art Authority has also acquired several companies that sell reproductions of masterpieces as fine art prints and museum store items.
We’ve mentioned Art Authority’s apps a number of times over the years, and the company’s latest announcement is a virtual museum—Art Authority Museum.
The Art Authority Museum is a groundbreaking new immersive art museum, with a collection of thousands of history’s most important artworks created by hundreds of the most significant artists of all time. You’ll not only experience these works just as in a brick-and-mortar museum (without the crowds), but you’ll soon be able to personalize that experience in ways we all can only begin to imagine.
Why the teaser? The Art Authority Museum is a free Vision Pro app, and for the moment, it provides only pre-opening tours of its lobby, where users can experience dozens of the world’s most historically significant artworks. Art Authority plans a grand opening later this year when its full collection—tens of thousands of artworks—will be available. Users will be able to create their own galleries, and Art Authority has numerous other features in the works, such as being able to get as close to the art as you like, something that tends to trouble guards in physical museums, and custom audio overlays to inform or entertain as you immerse yourself in the art.
(Ironically, Alan said they wouldn’t be able to visit their own museum for a few days because their Vision Pro hardware doesn’t arrive until later this week. Apple says there are over 600 apps available for the Vision Pro right now, and I bet we see a lot of quick updates as developers get to see how their apps look and work in a real Vision Pro rather than just a simulator.)
If you’ve purchased a Vision Pro, I encourage you to give the Art Authority Museum app a try. And if you’re waiting for a future Vision Pro built into standard glasses, check out Art Authority’s other apps: Art Authority for the iPad, Art Authority for the iPhone, and Art Channel for the Apple TV.
I’m a very long way from getting a Vision Pro, but Art Authority looks interesting anyway, so I tried it on my M1 MacBook Pro. It kind of works, but it doesn’t seem to function like a regular app. For example, it doesn’t seem to get into the Applications folder, and it has a tendency to quit without telling you first. Has anyone any experience with it? Maybe I’m just being clumsy, but I find it rather elusive and hard to control.
Which app did you download, @livfoss? It’s possible that the iPad version “works” on the M1 MacBook Pro but has issues. Let’s see what @alan3 says.
Art Authority for iPad does run on Apple Silicon Macs, like the M1 MacBook Pro. Please be sure you didn’t download the iPhone version. You should definitely be able to put it in the Applications folder. There are some small bugs on the Mac, in particular with the grid/thumbnail view, but it should never quit on you. Please let me know if you have a reproducible case, or any follow-up questions.
It turns out Art Authority for iPad even runs and looks great on Vision Pro. We weren’t sure about that until we finally got our real hardware.
Alan Oppenheimer
Founding Director, Art Authority Museum
artauthority.museum