You'll Be Able to Tour This Blockbuster David Bowie Exhibition Via Your Phone From Next Month

The collection of around 500 Bowie items is going virtual.
Sarah Ward
December 30, 2018

It's the huge exhibition that took the world by storm, sending David Bowie's lightning bolt-adorned face everywhere from London and Berlin to Tokyo and Melbourne. His Ziggy Stardust costumes, various handwritten lyrics, an assortment of album artwork, rare photographs and even the magic orb he fondled as Jareth in Labyrinth, too. Organised by London's Victoria and Albert Museum, David Bowie is showcased hundreds objects from the David Bowie Archive, visiting 12 cities over six years and attracting more than two million visitors — and while it finished its final run in Brooklyn earlier in 2018, it's coming back in a new format.

From Tuesday, January 8 — aka what would've been the music icon's 72nd birthday — David Bowie is will exist as a digital recreation that you can access on your phone. As first announced back in July, fans can expect to tour the Bowie bonanza as an augmented reality (AR) experience, which will feature a sequence of audio-visual spaces highlighting artifacts from Bowie's life. In total, there'll be more than 500 high-resolution images of Bowie-related items, including 60 new objects that weren't included in the touring exhibition.

Available on iOs and Android platforms, David Bowie is' AR version won't just involve looking at 2D representations, either, with 3D scans used to preserve and present the artist's costumes and objects in detail. And, there's more to come, with a virtual reality version still in the works. Here's hoping that Bowie obsessives will be able to virtually step into one of his out-of-sight outfits and see themselves in one — yes, this might be your chance to turn and face the strange or experience some ch-ch-changes.

A collaboration between Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc, the David Bowie Archive and the V&A, "the augmented reality adaptation of David Bowie is enables you to explore the entire exhibition in the intimacy of your own environment, without glass barriers, vitrines or throngs of visitors," according to the exhibition website.

How much it will cost is yet to be announced, but a portion of the profits will be donated the V&A and Brooklyn Museum.

David Bowie is will become available on iOs and Android platforms on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. For further information and to sign up for updates, head to davidbowieisreal.com.

Published on December 30, 2018 by Sarah Ward
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