Frameless: The Immersive Art Experience

The Frameless experience is structured around four thematic rooms: Colour in Motion, The Art of Abstraction, Beyond Reality, and The World Around Us, each room using impressive projection technology to reinterpret and reimagine iconic works of art.

Colour in Motion

Colour in Motion is the most successful of the four rooms, offering a vibrant and interactive reinterpretation of works by a variety of artists including Van Gogh, Monet, and Seurat. The room is a dynamic explosion of movement and colour, brought to life not only by the immersive projections but by its interactive floor. Visitors can actively engage with the art, ‘kicking’ brushstrokes into motion as they move through the space. This interplay between the digital and the physical blurs the boundary between observer and participant, transforming static masterpieces into a playful, kinetic experience, and making Colour in Motion both compelling and memorable.

The World Around

The World Around Us is immediately striking in its scale and grandeur, offering expansive panoramic projections of landscapes and cityscapes by artists such as Cézanne and Canaletto. Here, the immersive technology is leveraged to create a sense of place and presence, transporting visitors into the painted worlds of these masters. The room’s vastness amplifies the power of the imagery, allowing one to feel dwarfed by the monumental architecture of Canaletto’s Venetian scenes or enveloped by Cézanne’s rugged countryside vistas. The room has an almost cinematic quality, and is a testament to how digital reinterpretations can amplify the scale and impact of traditional works in an alternative way to traditional galleries.

Beyond Reality

Beyond Reality delves into the surreal and the avant-garde, featuring the otherworldly works of Dalí, Munch, and others. The room is an exploration of the bizarre and the dreamlike, with projections that feel as though they spill directly from the subconscious of the artists themselves. Dalí’s fantastical landscapes and melting clocks, followed by Munch’s iconic The Scream, are amplified by the room’s immersive design. The interplay of motion, light, and sound in this space successfully captures the disquieting yet hypnotic quality of surrealist and expressionist art. While the digital medium departs from the texture and intimacy of the original works, it still succeeds in evoking the spirit and ethos of these movements in a novel and arresting way.

The Art of Abstraction

The Art of Abstraction is the weakest of the four rooms. Featuring works by artists such as Mondrian and Kandinsky, the room struggles to achieve the same level of cohesion and impact as the others. The abstract works are fragmented, their presentation dictated by the accompanying music rather than standing as autonomous visual narratives. This subordination to sound diminishes the spatial and visual power of abstraction, reducing the experience to a series of disjointed animations. While the soundtrack is undeniably well-executed, the room fails to evoke the intellectual and emotional depth often associated with abstraction as an art form. The immersive potential feels underutilised here, leaving the impression of watching animated screens rather than stepping into the world of Mondrian’s precise geometry.

Frameless positions itself as a radical departure from the traditional gallery experience, rethinking how art can be encountered, interpreted, and enjoyed. Its stated mission of accessibility is commendable, reflecting an effort to break down the barriers that can make conventional art spaces feel exclusionary. By abandoning white walls and silent rooms in favour of immersive projections and dynamic soundscapes, Frameless creates an environment that is more informal and sensory-driven. Understandably, this intentional design is particularly effective in attracting families and younger visitors.

However, the claim of accessibility warrants a closer examination, particularly when viewed in the context of the experience’s cost. While Frameless may remove some perceived barriers, its admission prices pose a significant financial hurdle. In a city like London, many of the most prestigious galleries and museums, including the National Gallery and the Tate Modern, offer free entry. For a family of four, a visit to Frameless costs as much as £90, making it far less accessible than many of its more traditional counterparts. This contradiction between the venue’s ethos and its pricing is difficult to ignore and raises questions about the broader accessibility of immersive art experiences.

Beyond cost, there is another dimension to the question of accessibility: the format itself. While Frameless democratises access to visual culture by removing traditional art’s perceived elitism, it does so by transforming the way art is experienced. The immersive format, with its moving projections and synchronised soundtracks, prioritises sensory stimulation over unhurried contemplation. This transformation fundamentally alters the nature of the engagement, replacing the introspective stillness of a traditional gallery with an almost theatrical atmosphere. The experience becomes less about individual reflection and more about collective, multisensory immersion.