The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada is offering the new ‘Art Rate Monitor’ experience, which measures guests’ heart rates as they explore the museum.
Available through 19 November, the Art Rate Monitor is a unique experience that allows visitors to discover which works of art they are most excited to see and uncovers patterns in their preferences.
Guests can relive their highlights in a free personalised report. This identifies a guest’s art persona by revealing which artworks they spent the most time with, their preferred colour palettes, and more.
Here’s how it works: guests wear a lanyard and wristband to record their location and heart rate as they move through the institution. More than 70 beacons are located around the museum to enable the Art Rate Monitor to map which artworks have inspired visitors.
“Science has proven we respond to art in many ways: emotionally, cognitively and physically. Measuring heart rate is a simple and non-intrusive way to record one of the ways we experience art,” the Art Gallery of Ontario says.
Kimber Slater, the Art Gallery of Ontario’s director of brand marketing, said: “The Art Gallery of Ontario has always believed in delivering experiences that challenge long-held beliefs and create space for new ideas to grow.
‘Art Rate Monitor’ experience
“We knew right away that the Art Rate Monitor was the perfect demonstration of that belief and brings some much-needed levity to an environment that can be seen as ‘stuffy’ or ‘boring’.”
Last year, Kraken Rum opened a unique Halloween experience in London where the price of drinks was determined by visitors’ heart rates.
The Art Rate Monitor experience at the Art Gallery of Ontario is included with admission.
Images courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario
