Introduction to Art and Technology
Technology is becoming a tool for artists to mastermind aesthetic and social interventions. Artists can now draw on air within the ‘real world,’ generating elaborate megastructures that float about as in the event that they were clouds. A ‘real’ visual context serves as the bottom for a possible artwork; layers of digital information can create a fourth, even perhaps a fifth, dimensional experience.
What is Augmented Reality?
One of the means to sensorily alter the look of the external world is Augmented Reality (AR), which integrates, in real time, digital information into the user’s environment. A live (or indirect) view of a physical environment is infused (enhanced) with computer-generated sensory input. These changes can also take the shape of the additive effects of sound, video, graphics, or GPS data. Augmented Reality alters our perceived environment by plugging in colourful components of the digital world — the result could be an interactive playground.
Examples of Augmented Reality
Released in July 2016, Pokémon Go is an Augmented Reality game that made major news. Players use a mobile device’s GPS capability to locate, capture, and sometimes battle virtual creatures (Pokémon) who appear on the screen as in the event that they were standing in real world locations. Smart phones and pads are the screens across which the ‘adventures’ are played. Given the success of this game (and its marketing potential), there’s little doubt that we are going to see more of this electronic fusion of fantasy and reality in the longer term.
Virtual Reality
In contrast to AR, Virtual Reality (VR) replaces the true world with a simulated one. The term typically refers to computer technologies that use software to generate realistic images, sounds, and other sensations to create an imaginary setting. VR is immersive and frequently requires glasses, goggles or special helmeted headsets. The user’s physical presence is projected into the environment, which enables interaction inside the space and with any of the depicted objects.
Artists Using AR and VR
Pioneering examples of this cutting-edge art, in addition to provocative lectures by artists John Craig Freeman and Will Pappenheimer, were a part of AR: Augmented Reality, the primary exhibition within the Boston Cyberarts’ Green Street Gallery’s 2016-17 season. Besides work by Pappenheimer and Freeman, there have been contributions from Joseph Farbrook and Zachary Brady. The largest piece within the exhibit, Pappenheimer and Brady’s collaboration “Drawing Constellations,” is an interactive installation and app that uploads drawings to a consistently moving and evolving third-dimensional “constellation” situated inside of the gallery.
Art Pieces
Farbrook’s “Defending Virtual” is an AR artwork by which a 100 dollar bill (an actual Benjamin Franklin!) rests on a pedestal. There is the temptation to choose it up. When viewed through a tablet screen, though, the bill is defended by a gun-toting hand that’s waving the weapon concerning the gallery, making threatening gestures at anyone who gets too near the bill. Freeman’s “Green Street & AR” is a site-specific AR art piece created for smart phones. The virtual world seems, in certain locations, to have penetrated into the ‘real’ one. Selected objects appear to copy themselves after which float off into the sky.
The Artists
Freeman is an artist with over twenty-five years of experience drawing on emergent technologies to supply large-scale public works. He is especially thinking about transforming our sense of play, often working at sites where the forces of globalization are shaping the lives of local communities. Brady is an artist, user experience designer, and web developer from Brooklyn, NY. He is a Director of Technology (in addition to a partner) at Suits & Sandals, LLC. The Brooklyn-based Pappenheimer has been creating recent media, performance, and installation art for many years.
Conclusion
AR and VR are rapidly evolving art forms that make use of technology to entertain, to complement our sense of ourselves and the environment, and to explore our sense of reality and illusion. In the provocative pieces on the Boston Cyberart exhibition, we got an intriguing sense of just how far the digital is pushing the visual boundaries of performance art. The way forward for creativity will likely be about greater than exploding media, and it’ll be exciting to see how artists proceed to make use of AR and VR to create recent and modern experiences. As technology continues to advance, we will expect to see much more impressive examples of AR and VR art that challenge our perceptions and push the boundaries of what is feasible.
