San Francisco’s Museum of modern art (SFMOMA) has introduced a unique way for the general public to take in its collection of more than 34,000 items – through text.

According to SFMOMA, for a visitor to walk past each of its artworks currently on display, they would have to walk roughly 7 miles (11.2 kilometres). To put the entire collection on display, SFMOMA would need to expand to 17 times its current size – with visitors covering 121.3 miles (195 kilometres) to view everything.

As a way of showcasing this vast collection – only 5 per cent is on display at a time – the museum has introduced its new art discovery tool, an SMS service called “Send Me SFMOMA”

To use the service, users text the number 572-51 with the words “send me” followed by a keyword or emoji. In response, they will receive a related artwork with caption via text message.

“In a world oversaturated with information, we asked ourselves: how can we generate personal connections between a diverse cross section of people and the artworks in our collection? How can we provide a more comprehensive experience of our collection,” said Jay Mollica, creative technologist at SFMOMA.

“Send Me SFMOMA was conceived as a way to bring transparency to the collection while engendering further exploration and discussion among users. It provides an approachable, personal and creative method of sharing the breadth of SFMOMA’s collection with the public.”

The service has proved a huge initial success, with more than 12,000 text requests received in its first four days of operation and 3,000 different artworks sent out – more than the museum currently has on display.