Augmented Reality Art Research Articles

An Investigation of the Use of Augmented Reality in Public Art

Augmented reality offers many artistic possibilities when it comes to the creation of place-based public artworks. In this paper, we present a series of works around the topic of augmented reality (AR) art and place-based storytelling, including the use of walking as a creative method, a series of workshops with emerging artists, public AR art collaborations and a study to examine user experience when interacting with such artworks. Our findings from these works show the potential of integrating augmented reality with public physical artworks and offer guidance to artists and AR developers on how to expand this potential. For artists, we show the importance of the space in which the artwork will be placed and provide guidance on how to work with the space. For developers, we find that there is a need to create tools that work with artists’ existing practices and to investigate how to expand augmented reality past the limitations of site- or piece-specific apps.

‘Go Outside and Play It!’: A Scenographic Approach to Finding Aura in Sci-Fi, Cli-Fi, Augmented Reality Art Game, Sin Sol/No Sun

ABSTRACT This article seeks to explore the affordances of certain new media applications for generating environmental affect, and hence possibly effect, in those who use them. It specifically aims to examine the use of augmented reality (AR) and movement/space-sensitive technologies in the science-fiction, climate-fiction, mobile art game Sin Sol/No Sun (2018–2020), made by Latina media and performance artist and theorist micha cárdenas and her team at the Critical Realities Studio at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Sidestepping arguments about the nature and degree of immersivity afforded by different media and how this may, or may not, correlate with environmental engagement, it focuses instead on questions of embodiment and the potential for the development of ‘aura’ in spaces mediated by AR, and how these may potentially help promote pro-environmental affect. More specifically it argues that Sin Sol contrives to restore the aura of our environment in a relational way, through a design that is purposefully open to the player’s auratic free associations. It seeks to demonstrate this by means of a provisional, personal, scenographic account of my multi-sited attempts to experience the game to try to tease out the implications of this kind of ecopoetics.

Reimagining Places, Reconstructing Histories: Augmented Reality Art and Heritage Apps as an Ultimate Display

Abstract This article employs Ivan Sutherland’s 1965 concept of the Ultimate Display to discuss the experience generated by augmented reality art and cultural heritage. Analyzing projects that reimagine or reconstruct reality, the author discusses the social impact and cultural workings of these apps. The article shows how such apps can facilitate kinesthetic performances that intervene in established cultural narratives and open a window to new social realities. In this context, the author also introduces her project CHAR, an online collection of AR art and cultural heritage apps, which illustrates how Sutherland’s vision has been materialized through the mapping of AR-reconstructed realities.

MODERN ART IN VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

The article examines the features of modern art in virtual and augmented reality. The technology of virtual reality and the essence of augmented reality art are described in detail. Artistic examples of the use of VR and AR at the national and global levels are given. The scientific article is aimed at studying the features and analysis of modern art in virtual and augmented reality. The research methods used in this article are: logical method, analysis, generalization. The scientific novelty lies in the distinction between the concepts of «virtual reality», «augmented reality» and in a clear and detailed selection of examples of implementation of these concepts in modern art. The world of art in the online space over the last thirty years has become extremely interesting, diverse and no less active than «offline» one. And if earlier artists even tried to resist this, urging viewers to «take their eyes off» the screens of gadgets, the current situation has shown how necessary the opportunities for digital technology, including the cultural sphere, are in this unpredictable time for public communication. Art is very important for the human race. From the very beginning of our existence, people have been creating some kind of art. From paintings on the walls to beautiful sculptures and graffiti. Now, more than ever, people are becoming more and more interested in art. Augmented reality and virtual reality (usually abbreviated as AR and VR, respectively) are reality technologies that enhance or replace the real environment with a simulated one. Augmented reality (AR) complements your environment by adding digital elements to live viewing, often with a smartphone camera. Virtual reality (VR) is a completely exciting experience that replaces the real environment with a simulated one. Virtual reality offers a complete immersion in another reality. However, AR shows the reality and the changed version side by side. VR replaces what the user sees with an alternative reality. AR adds what the user can already see. This means that it can be useful for annotating scenes and providing additional information. It is also used to place scenes in context and emphasize contrasts with current reality. Virtual reality requires special technologies such as headsets, controllers and sensors. All you need for augmented reality is a smartphone or tablet, and they can be downloaded as apps.

The ARt of Inequality: A Youth Social Justice Exhibition in Augmented Reality

The substantive development in the role of augmented reality (AR) technologies in public spaces provides new opportunities for digital arts and arts activism as a means of increasing awareness of critical social issues. However, because of the digital divide and dominant narratives in the museum, there is an existing racial and socioeconomic gap in (digital) art, activism education, and museum curation. In this paper we present a curriculum that aims to empower high-school-aged youth from minoritized backgrounds through art activism in museum spaces via the development and exhibition of augmented reality art pieces that address social justice issues relevant to youth interests and experiences.

REALational Perspectives: Strategies for Expanding beyond the Here and Now in Mobile Augmented Reality (AR) Art

This article analyzes mobile AR installations in order to demonstrate different strategies for producing a relational sense of place and time. These installations combine multiple narratives in situ; thus, they reshape existing perceptions and influence national identities. By means of exposing actual environments as constructed and therefore as virtual landscapes, mobile AR art exposes our situatedness and becomes a strong tool for activism as it encourages us to think beyond familiar, material reality. As such, it rejects an absolute perception of reality and reconfigures it as a relational domain.

The Audience and Artist Interactivity in Augmented Reality Art: The Solo Exhibition on the Flame Series

ABSTRACTTraditional art exhibitions are typically limited to artworks being viewed on the walls of galleries and museums. While walking around galleries, viewers often view artworks spontaneously within a matter of a few seconds or minutes. The act of viewing artworks can take many forms; one might quickly glance at the works, or stare at them, or intensely view the works as a whole group and/or in part. The frequent assumption is that the artist is communicating their vision from one direction. This paper explores how augmented reality art (AR) has affected viewing behaviours and norms, and the ways in which viewers experience traditional paintings, as well as new media arts. Based on Cecilia Suhr's invitational solo exhibition, Flame, at the Nameseoul University IANG Gallery in Seoul, Korea, in May 2017, the goal of this paper is threefold: 1) to unpack the conceptual framework of the Flame series by loosely drawing on Deleuze's notion of “becoming”; 2) to explore audiences’ viewing behaviours of AR art in relation to the inherent characteristics and ontology of the AR medium; and 3) to problematise how the AR medium affects the hegemonic tension between artist and audience in the dichotomisation of active/passive audiences.

Mapping Ararat: An Augmented Reality Walking Tour for an Imaginary Jewish Homeland

This article reviews Mapping Ararat: An Imaginary Jewish Homelands Project that utilizes augmented reality (AR) to create a walking tour that envisions what would have happened if Mordecai Noah’s 1825 plan to transform Grand Island, New York into a city of refuge had succeeded. Using mobile devices, tourists interact with Ararat artifacts and monuments created using 3D modeling software and inserted into the Grand Island landscape. The article reviews Mapping Ararat as a new form of mediated and virtual Jewish tourism and its implications for such fields as sensory ethnography, counterfactual history, and Jewish cultural studies. It also contextualizes the project in terms of augmented reality art and its extension of site-specific installation using locative media. The final section highlights four electronic monuments on the AR walking tour (flag, cornerstone, gravestones, and synagogue) with documentary video clips.

Invisible visualities

Augmented reality (AR) art is a form of artistic expression that complicates traditional notions of the visual arts. A visual AR artist trades in what we might call invisible visualities. In this essay, I consider the questions why does AR art matter as a cultural form of expression? and what does AR art contribute to contemporary technoliterary theoretical discourse? by putting several recent AR artworks into dialogue with some of today’s most important literary-media theorists.

Augmented Reality and Mobile Learning

In this paper, the authors examine the state of the art in augmented reality (AR) for mobile learning. Previous work in the field of mobile learning has included AR as a component of a wider toolkit but little has been done to discuss the phenomenon in detail or to examine in a balanced fashion its potential for learning, identifying both positive and negative aspects. The authors seek to provide a working definition of AR and to examine how it can be embedded within situated learning in outdoor settings. The authors classify it according to key aspects (device/technology, mode of interaction/learning design, type of media, personal or shared experiences, whether the experience is portable or static, and the learning activities/outcomes). The authors discuss the technical and pedagogical challenges presented by AR, before looking at ways in which it can be used for learning. Finally, the paper looks ahead to AR technologies that may be employed in the future.