16/09/2026
What happens when you combine hand-crafted paintings, 2D animation, augmented reality, spatial sound and one of the world’s leading luxury ecotourism brands?
We worked with andBeyond and artist Joni-Leigh Doran to expand the horizons of connection to distant nature at Virtuoso a few weeks ago.
andBeyond’s properties sit inside some of the most insane wild spaces on the planet. The challenge was how to create an emotional connection between people standing in an expo hall in Las Vegas and those wildernesses.
Guests were handed 1 of 16 iPad Pro 13” tablets (loaded with an app we built) and a pair of bone conduction headphones.
9 oil paintings by Joni-Leigh, each one an iconic andBeyond destination, served as triggers. Point the iPad at a canvas and the app recognised the painting and brought it to life through painstaking animation, transitioning into video that turned each canvas into a magic window onto that world.
Bone conduction was a deliberate choice. Spatial audio placed you inside the soundscape of the place, directionalised based on where you were standing relative to the canvas, while leaving your ears open so andBeyond’s team could still talk to you through the experience.
It was a meticulous but elegantly simple solution, which matters because in great immersive experiences, the technology has to be invisible.
Nicole Robinson, CMO of andBeyond, said it so well:
“The places were the story. The technology simply helped someone stop, look, listen and perhaps feel something for a place they may never have experienced before.”
That’s why we keep doing this work. Immersive tech can shrink the distance between a person and a wild place they haven’t yet stood in.
A sense of physical and emotional proximity is where care starts.
