On Thursday, art galleries will close their doors as the UK enters its second national lockdown but innovative technology could offer them a lifeline.
The Lobsteropolis exhibition at London's Saatchi Gallery allows visitors to access it from home using their smartphone or computer via a robot.
Users can move the robot around the exhibition and even interact with other robot visitors. The creation is the brainchild of artist Philip Colbert, who came up with the idea at the start of the pandemic.
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He told AFP: "When I was stuck at home I was contemplating how I was going to do an exhibition during a pandemic and how that would be possible," he told AFP.
He added: "I was really interested in this idea of almost creating this fantastical sort of shipwreck idea of doing something very physical, that people would access through robots effectively."
Colbert believes his virtual experience could mark the dawn of a new era for art galleries and offer visitors and entirely new experience.
He said: "To actually go to a gallery as a robot and meet a friend as a robot, and then experience the show as robots, and chat, and have conversations somewhere else, it's like another step of reality, another possibility of reality."
Visitors can access London's Lobsteropolis art exhibition via a robot using their smartphone or computer. /AFP
Galleries will again be reliant on financial support from the government during the second lockdown as they are starved of trade from passing visitors, but Colbert says robots could provide an alternative solution.
"It's responsible to come up with solutions to create, to keep things moving and keep things happening and I think in a way the robots just represent possible future solutions that could really actually help keep physical spaces going in times of pandemics."
Video editing: Sam Cordell | Producer: Alec Fenn