A Google Lens integration between the de Young museum in San Francisco and the Google Arts & Culture team has gone live, providing an alternative guided tour of the museum via smartphone.

Google Lens will recognise artwork exhibits in the American art collection on the second floor of the museum, which is part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco institution, bringing up relevant descriptions and hidden stories told by museum curators.

At specific places while walking around the museum, specially created videos will also be triggered. The de Young has enlisted the services of Serbian-born 2017 artist-in-residence Ana Prvački to create these videos, working with creative production company Relevator in Austin, Texas.

The nine witty and playful videos each address a different idea, relating the de Young’s context to topics ranging from ancient myth to personal intimacies, and environmental matters to vision exercises.

Two sculptures will also be installed in connection with the project: a music stand in the Piazzoni Murals Room, and a bee memorial in the Osher Sculpture Garden.

The project – which is titled Detour and runs until 29 September – encourages visitors to explore different ways of experiencing the museum, via their mobile devices.