The emergence of new technologies and the current pace of our fast-changing world is impacting the arts and culture industry. Gone are the days when the scope of art patronage was restricted to bricks-and-mortar galleries. Artwork can easily be showcased today through online galleries — with just a click of a button.

The future of art will move towards making it more interactive and multi-sensory. Artists today have begun to integrate their artwork with emerging technologies like virtual reality, machine learning, and facial recognition systems. Peter Shoukry is one such contemporary artist with a futuristic approach, integrating new-age technology into his artwork.

Born in Cairo, Egypt, Peter immigrated to the US with his parents when he was just ten years old. After graduating high school, he got a golden opportunity to showcase his artwork at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Since then, his career graph witnessed a steep rise, enabling him to participate in international exhibitions and winning millions of patrons across the world. Peter has had an incredible career and is now a globally acclaimed artist.

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Having proven his forte as an artist, Peter was always looking to enhance the experiences of his art patrons. He was enchanted with the scope of integrating technology with art. In consequence, Peter was prompted to create an art series called ‘Unspoken’ using QR technology, in February of 2019. This allowed viewers to get motion and sound view of his painting by scanning its QR code on their mobile devices. Later he evolved this series by using augmented reality, allowing viewers to activate a multidimensional view of the painting using their smartphone or tablet.

With this innovative approach, Peter reminisced the age-old archetypical wonder – Mona Lisa. He noted that spectators were unable to determine if she was smiling or not, even after gazing for hours. Peter wondered how one could use intelligent technology to render an astounding experience. This inspired Peter to come up with an innovative painting that uses facial recognition technology to mimic the expression of its spectator. The proposed art piece, known as ‘Spoken,’ will automatically identify and map the viewer’s facial expressions through its in-built camera sensors. This path-breaking masterpiece to be unveiled soon is undoubtedly going to revolutionize the norms of creating and experiencing art today.

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The essence of art and creativity will remain the same forever — what is going to change is the way people perceive, appreciate, and patronize art. With the changing times, patrons will expect richer ways to experience art. So, the future of art will belong to those who know how to leverage technology to enhance viewer experiences. Peter Shoukry is one of the few great artists today who has taken a big step forward in this direction.