Technology for nature & the arts
Newfields Lab is a team of designers, developers, and digital strategists who create technology solutions for Newfields and other institutions in the cultural sector. We engage audiences in immersive experiences through technology by developing new ways for people to interact with art, nature, their environment, and one another.
We have the unique perspective of being a digital agency embedded within a cultural institution that focuses on both the arts and nature. Fostered by the depth and breadth of the expertise and support of its Newfields colleagues, the Lab takes a holistic approach to opportunities within its sector.
WE SPECIALIZE IN:
- Digital collection integrations
- Access and exploration tools
- Web design and development
- Custom software development
- AR/VR development
- Mobile applications
- Graphic design
- Digital asset and data management and migration
- In-gallery technology that engages and entertains visitors
Our staff has a wide range of expertise and backgrounds, including backend and frontend software design and development, digital strategy, graphic design, content assessment, data management, transformation, and analytics, and in-gallery interpretative applications.
CONTACT THE LAB
SOME OF OUR LATEST PROJECTS:
While preparing for the launch of the Newfields brand, the Lab, working in collaboration with a local advertising agency, developed an entirely new website for our institution. Mindfully incorporating the many diverse aspects of Newfields — the galleries, gardens, historic homes, and performance spaces — we gave content managers an easy-to-use CMS to prioritize events and exhibitions. After the launch of the site, we have continued to serve as on-site developers and designers, updating the website with new and improved features.
Miller House VR
For the upcoming reinstallation of the IMA Design Gallery, our curators were looking for a way to integrate our historic Miller House property into the gallery experience. Located 50 miles away from the IMA Galleries, the Miller House is one of the finest examples of American modern architecture and contains many important pieces from our design and decorative arts collections. To better integrate the Miller House and its furnishings into the IMA Design Gallery, the Lab developed a virtual reality experience that transports guests to the Miller House, where they can view the main living space as though they were sitting in the iconic sunken conversation pit.
The Mariner’s Museum and Park of Newport News, Virginia, approached the Lab to build their online collections from the ground up. We integrated their library, archives, and museum collections, along with the collections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), into a searchable website with information-rich object pages. Cross-referencing between collections highlights connections and enhances the discovery experience for visitors to the site.
Starting with the framework we built for the Mariners’ Museum online collections, we created a similar online collection for the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, formerly the Virginia Historical Society. The site features information-rich object pages that are cross-referenced to other similar and related objects in the collection, and a deep zoom image viewer that allows users to view minute details in large, high resolution images.
The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields is one of fourteen members of the American Art Collaborative (AAC), a group of art museums dedicated to creating a diverse critical mass of Linked Open Data (LOD) on the Web on the subject of American art. To further the work of this collaborative, the Lab has shared large data sets about our art collections and the artists represented in our collections. As Phase I of AAC activity comes to a close, the collaborative is currently looking towards the future. During Phase II, the Newfields Lab hopes to assist in adding additional partner museums to the collaborative, growing the amount of art-related LOD on the web, and creating additional discovery tools for audiences to explore the linked data sets in meaningful ways.
