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 Urban Spaces: AR, Art, and Architecture  

 bc biermann the heavy projects

asst. prof. of media – univ. of missouri – st. louis

ean mering the heavy projects jordan seiler public ad campaign

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Re+Public is:

Creative collaboration between:

+ The Heavy Projects (Los Angeles) + Public Ad Campaign (New York City)

Evolved from a shared interest in democratizing access to public space:

+ How can technology provide access to private citizens and

artists who typically cannot afford commercial “billboard space”?

Dedicated to using emerging tech and AR in particular to:

+ Alter current expectations of public media environment

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Public Spaces & Media

Public media environment is generally dictated by:

+ property ownership + ability to pay for its usage

+ willingness to break the law

As such, Re+Public seeks to:

+ blur private property boundaries + allow private citizens & artists to make incursions into public spaces in ways they were previously physically unable to do

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Re+Public Application

With these public space goals in mind, Re+Public has developed a mobile application (android / ios) that digitally resurfaces:

+ Outdoor Advertising [ 2D art visions ]

AR | AD Takeover: June | 2011, NYC

Ron English’s “Breath” over billboard in Times Square

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poster boy [ culture jamming ]

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+ Murals [ interactive 3D art visions ]

“Deconstructed”

“Deconstructed” How & Nosm Mural @ Wynwood Walls [ Art Basel Dec 2012 ]

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app screenshot: mural deconstructs on touch event

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“Z-Space”

“Z-Space” Aiko Mural @ Wynwood Walls [ Art Basel Dec 2012 ]

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   app screenshot: can walk “into” mural

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“Loss of Essence”

“Loss of Essence” McGinness Mural @ Wynwood Walls [ Art Basel Dec 2012 ]

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 app screenshot: paint pours out of mural

[ inspired by painting strippers neon | Dr. Strangelove reference ]

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+ Murals [ art visions - resurrections ] digital archiving [ in situ ]

Original 1982 Keith Haring Mural Resurrected

Bowery Wall, NYC [ June 2012 ]

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Fairey’s Goldman Tribute Mural @ Wynwood Walls [ Art Basel Dec 2012 ]

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Swoon mural resurrection [ original mural degraded ]

Stavanger, Norway [ NuArt Nov 2012 ]

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+ Buildings [ city visions - art ]

+ converted muralist MOMO’s 2D designs into 3D and placed on the Williamsburg Art & Historical Building in Brooklyn, NYC [ May 2012 ]

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+ Buildings [ city visions - AR projection mapping ]

Bradbury Building in LA with a MOMO design "projected" onto a 3D model “surface” of the building [ june 2011 ]

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+ Buildings [ city visions - reskinning ]

Bradbury Building in LA with a MOMO design "projected" onto a 3D model “surface” of the building [ May 2012 ]

Bladebury

+ many interior scenes of Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner were shot in the Bradbury Building

 

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 Bladebury: Bradbury Building with a Blade Runner skin; working on a potential collaboration with Sung Ho Kim (Prof. of Architecture @ Washington University

– St. Louis) to provide visions of redesigned building in the space

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+ Buildings [ city visions – interactivity ]

Driskill Hotel Takeover: pixel wall surrounded hotel w/ IEEE “orb” in center

SXSW 2013

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 app screenshot: on touch orb swells and destroys pixel wall

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 app screenshot: new structure arises with IEEE | Open Future standards

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Putting It All Together

Interactive Urban Spaces: Art + City Visions

composite  by  Ean  Mering  

20’  x  8’  installation  available  for  open  development  on  any  AR  feature  tracking  platform  for  AWE  2014  

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Interactive Urban Spaces: Art + City Visions

Composite will live online as a marker for anyone to develop an AR vision of:

Practical Information: train schedules, way signage, store information

Historical Information: building details and interesting facts

Architectural Information: volumetrics, massing, redesigns, sun exposures

Urban Planning: traffic flows, new modes of transport

Art: 3D, interactive, public art, spatially relevant

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Blade Runner police car flies through city mimicking the film

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Berlin Wall: movie clip of 1989 fall

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 Pearl Paint (NYC): store info | paint falls from window

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 Art replaces ads

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 3D projections that use multiple surfaces to increase

informational or art space

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Urban Spaces: AR, Art, and Architecture

Concluding Remarks

+ It is vital to the health of any city that its inhabitants can participate, in some meaningful way, in the visual urban

messaging systems that surround them.

+ AR provides a way for private artists and citizens to participate in messaging in public, mostly urban spaces in ways that have been

generally dictated by commercial interests

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 + It is our hope that these early AR entrants

will help create experiences that consider art and design as an important part of the way the public

adopts this technology.

+ Whether it is outdoor ads, murals, or entire buildings, Re+Public seeks to continue to deploy AR to alter the current

expectations of urban media in accomplishing our core mission of re+imagining public space