Augmented Reality Art: From an Emerging Technology to a Novel Creative Medium

389 Pages·2018·15.302 MB·English

by  Vladimir Geroimenko, (eds.)

Springer Series on Cultural Computing
Vladimir Geroimenko Editor
Augmented
Reality Art
From an Emerging Technology to a
Novel Creative Medium
Second Edition
Springer Series on Cultural Computing
Editor-in-chief
Ernest Edmonds, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Series editors
Sam Ferguson, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
Frieder Nake, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Nick Bryan-Kinns, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
Linda Candy, University of Technology, Ultimo, Australia
David England, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
Andrew Hugill, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
Shigeki Amitani, Adobe Systems Inc., Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Doug Riecken, Columbia University, New York, USA
Jonas Lowgren, Linköping University, Malmö, Sweden
Ellen Yi-Luen Do, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA
CulturalComputingisanexciting,emergingfieldofHumanComputerInteraction,
whichcoverstheculturalimpactofcomputingandthetechnologicalinfluencesand
requirements for the support of cultural innovation. Using support technologies
such as location-based systems, augmented reality, cloud computing and ambient
interaction researchers can explore the differences across a variety of cultures and
providetheknowledgeandskillsnecessarytoovercomeculturalissuesandexpand
human creativity. This series presents the current research and knowledge of a
broadrangeoftopicsincludingcreativitysupportsystems,digitalcommunities,the
interactive arts, cultural heritage, digital museums and intercultural collaboration.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10481
Vladimir Geroimenko
Editor
Augmented Reality Art
From an Emerging Technology to a Novel
Creative Medium
Second Edition
123
Editor
Vladimir Geroimenko
Faculty of Informatics andComputer
Science
TheBritish University in Egypt(BUE)
Sherouk City,Cairo
Egypt
ISSN 2195-9056 ISSN 2195-9064 (electronic)
SpringerSeries onCultural Computing
ISBN978-3-319-69931-8 ISBN978-3-319-69932-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69932-5
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017963005
1stedition:©SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014
2ndedition:©SpringerInternationalPublishingAG2018
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This pioneering book is dedicated to the
future generations of augmented reality
artists.
Many thanks to the British University in
Egypt (BUE) for the support, without which
this new edition would not have been
possible.
Preface
Thebookyouareholdinginyourhandsinapaper,ormorelikelydigitalformat,is
auniqueone.Thisisthesecond editionofthefirstevermonographonaugmented
reality art. Itiswrittenbyateam ofworld-leading artists andresearchers,pioneers
intheuseofaugmentedrealityasanovelartisticmedium,andisbeingdedicatedto
the future generations of augmented reality artists.
Thebookexploresawiderangeofmajoraspectsofaugmentedrealityartandits
enabling technology. It is intended to be a starting point and essential reading not
only for artists, researchers, and technology developers, but also for students and
everyone who is interested in emerging augmented reality technology and its
current and future applications in art.
Itwas very difficult to make this book happen, because augmented reality art is
stillinitsinfancyatpresent,andtherearethereforerelativelyfewresearchmaterials
available. We owe a debt to our contributors who have managed to produce this
monograph in the face of these difficulties. The team includes 30 researchers and
artists from 12 countries (Australia, Canada, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, UAE, UK, and USA). Many of the authors are
members of the Manifest.AR group (www.manifestar.info).
Manifest.AR was the first artist collective that started using augmented reality
(AR)tocreateartandactivistworks.ThegroupwasformedwhenARcreationfirst
becamepossibleonsmartphones.Manifest.ARexploreswhatmakesARuniqueas
amedium,separatingitfromotherformsofnewmedia,suchasvirtualreality,Web
art, video, and physical computing.
The collective found its roots in the groundbreaking 2010 We AR in MoMA
intervention.MarkSkwarekandSander Veenhofrealizedtheycould challenge the
Museum of Modern Art’s extreme exclusivity by placing artworks inside and
around the museum and invited selected artists to participate. Finding talented and
accomplishedARartistsfortheshowwasverydifficult—atthetimeoftheMoMA
intervention, very few people even knew what AR was. The group of invited
participants included most of those who became core founders of Manifest.AR:
Sander Veenhof, Mark Skwarek, Tamiko Thiel, Will Pappenheimer, Christopher
Manzione, and John Craig Freeman. After the We AR in MoMA intervention, it
vii
viii Preface
was time to put down in words the thoughts, goals, and future visions of the first
artistsworkingwiththisnewtechnology.TamikoThielproposedchoosingagroup
name to give an identity to future collaborations. Sander Veenhof suggested the
name Manifest.AR and that the group should write a manifesto to document this
historic moment, the birth of mobile AR as an art form. Mark Skwarek brought
togetherwhatbecametheoriginalfounder’sgroup(theaboveartists,plusGeoffrey
Alan Rhodes) and was the driving force behind getting the group to write and
publishthe“ARArtManifesto,”Manifest.AR’sdebutasagroupentity,onJanuary
25, 2011.
Here is the manifesto in full:
“All that is Visible must grow beyond itself and extend into the Realm of the
Invisible” (Tron, 1982).
AugmentedReality(AR)createsCoexistentSpacialRealities,inwhichAnything
is possible—Anywhere!
The AR Future is without boundaries between the Real and the Virtual. In the
AR Future we become the Media. Freeing the Virtual from a Stagnant Screen we
transform Data into physical, Real-Time Space.
The Safety Glass of the Display is shattered and the Physical and Virtual are
united in a new In-Between Space. In this Space is where we choose to Create.
WearebreakingdownthemysteriousDoorsoftheImpossible!TimeandSpace
died yesterday. We already live in the Absolute, because we have created eternal,
omnipresent Geolocative Presence.
In the 21st Century, Screens are no longer Borders. Cameras are no longer
Memories. With AR the Virtual augments and enhances the Real, setting the
Material World in a dialogue with Space and Time.
In the Age of the Instantaneous Virtual Collective, AR Activists aggravate and
relievetheSurfaceTensionandOsmoticPressurebetweentheso-calledNetworked
Virtual and the so-called Physical Real.
Now hordes of Networked AR Creatives deploy Viral Virtual Media to overlay,
thenoverwhelmclosedSocialSystemslodgedinPhysicalHierarchies.Theycreate
subliminal, aesthetic and political AR Provocations, triggering Techno-
Disturbances in a substratosphere of Online and Offline Experience.
Standing firmly in the Real, we expand the influence of the Virtual, integrating
and mapping it onto the World around us. Objects, banal By-Products, Ghost
Imagery and Radical Events will co-exist in our Private Homes and in our Public
Spaces.
With AR we install, revise, permeate, simulate, expose, decorate, crack, infest
and unmask Public Institutions, Identities and Objects previously held by Elite
Purveyors of Public and Artistic Policy in the so-called Physical Real.
ThemobilephoneandfutureVisualizationDevicesarematerialwitnesstothese
Ephemeral Dimensional Objects, Post-Sculptural Events and Inventive
Architectures. We invade Reality with our Viral Virtual Spirit.
ARisnotanAvant-GardeMartialPlanofDisplacement,itisanAdditiveAccess
MovementthatLayersandRelatesandMerges.ItembracesallModalities.Against
the Spectacle, the Realized Augmented Culture introduces Total Participation.
Preface ix
AugmentedRealityisanewFormofArt,butitisAnti-Art.ItisPrimitive,which
amplifies its Viral Potency. It is Bad Painting challenging the definition of Good
Painting.ItshowsupintheWrongPlaces.ItTakestheStagewithoutpermission.It
is Relational Conceptual Art that Self-Actualizes.
AR Art is Anti-Gravity, it is Hidden and must be Found. It is Unstable and
Inconstant.ItisBeingandBecoming,RealandImmaterial.ItisThereandcanbe
Found —if you Seek It.
The first edition of this book captured a special moment in time, the birth of
augmented reality as a new medium. It showed the first efforts of the artist’s
pioneeringinthisoncevirginmedium.Newmediumsrequireaperiodofdiscovery.
Augmented Reality Art: From an Emerging Technology to a Novel Creative
Medium was a snapshot of that incredible moment of discovery. The progression
that took place in the first few years was truly impressive. During this time, the
leadingartiststookeveryopportunitytocreateworkthattheycould.Attimes,some
oftheartistsweredoing3–4showsinoneweek.Thisallowedthemtoexperiment
at a rapid pace. In this period, they explored what makes the medium unique and
differentfromitspredecessors.Oneareathathadgreatpromisewastheabilitytotie
an idea to a physical location or object.
It is worth to remember that the first works in cinema were basically mirror
copies of the theater stage. Actors would perform a narrative on a theatrical stage
whilethefilmcrewrecordedit.Ittook50yearstogetfromtheinventionoffilmto
OrsonWelles’sCitizenKane,whichisconsideredtobethefirstmasterpieceinthe
black-and-white film’s golden age displaying mastery over the technology as well
ascinematicnarrativetechnique.Theteambehinditscreationhadabsolutemastery
of the medium on all levels for that time.
Augmented reality art has yet to have its Citizen Kane, a masterpiece truly
worthy of the technology. It is not to say that groundbreaking work has not been
done,butitwilllookprimitivecomparedtowhatiscominginthenearfuture.This
is largely due to the limitations of the current hardware and software. The early
years of augmented reality art development were trying times. Complex artworks
that worked perfectly during testing would be dead at the gallery opening. Certain
wireless providers would work at one event and not at others. Many times, you
wouldseethepeople crowdedaround theoneguywho showed upwith anAT&T
wirelessplanbecausealltheothercarriersweredead.SDKsandothersoftwarefor
AR art development would be in business one day and bought by Apple the next
(who would subsequently remove the software from the public market). Work
would exist one day and be gone the next. During this ongoing period, docu-
mentationwascritical.Mostoftheearlyworkexistsonlyasdocumentation.Sadly,
this is still somewhat thecase. But there is hope that comes in the form of AR Kit
byAppleandARCorebyGoogle.Thisdevelopmentsoftwareisquitegood,iseasy
to work with, and makes AR a hundred times more accessible to the development
community than it ever has been. There is a real chance this software might bring
AR to the general public. If more people start using the technology, more exciting
tools for artists will be developed.
x Preface
For the ideal experience, the user’s view needs to move from the LCD of the
phonetosomethinglikeapair oflightweightARglasses.Theexperienceneedsto
be directly in front of the user’s field of view. Rock solid tracking is needed to
orienttheARartworkinthephysicalspace.Andontopofthis,thesoftwareneeds
to be able to integrate the digital content into the physical space, including color
correction, depth offield, shadows, and moving objects. We still have a few years
before this, so artists will have to make due with the current smartphones.
Inthisupdatedandrevisededitionofthebook,weseethesecondgenerationof
AR artworks and new talents joining the AR artist community. The projects have
progressed conceptually and technically. The smartphones have improved dra-
matically, especially their sensors, speed, and resolution. Next-generation AR
headsets like the HoloLens have also become available. These advances have
openedupanentirelynewandimprovedsetoftoolsartiststocreatewith.Itisnever
been as exciting to create AR as today and the future looks bright!
The content of the book is arranged as follows. You can read chapters in
sequence or randomly.
Chapter 1 “Augmented Reality Activism” narrates the exciting story of the first
generation of activists that began working with augmented reality to further their
causes.Theseactivists pioneeredthedevelopment ofmobileAR insearch ofwhat
madeituniquefromothermediumsandwhattraitscouldbeusedtofurtheractivists
agendas.Many ofthese worksarethefirst explorationsof theirtype withthisnew
technology and act as a road map for future activists working with AR. What
dangers do those working with this technology face? Does AR have the ability to
empower the masses? Can it create real social change and can it unite society by
turning virtual experiences into physical ones? The activists in this chapter set out
to find these answers.
Chapter 2 “Critical Interventions into Canonical Spaces” describes augmented
realityinterventionsledbytheauthorin2011withtheartistgroupManifest.ARat
the Venice Biennale, and in collaboration with the design office PATTU at the
Istanbul Biennal. The interventions used the emerging technology of mobile aug-
mentedrealitytogeolocatevirtualartworksinsidethenormally,curatoriallyclosed
spacesoftheexhibitionsviaGPScoordinates.Unlikephysicalartinterventions,the
artworkscannotberemovedorblockedbythecuratorsorotherauthoritiesandwill
remain at those locations as long as the artist desires. The artworks exploit the
site-specificity as an integral part of the artwork while simultaneously questioning
the value of location to canonize works of art, and the power of the curator as
gatekeepertocontrolaccesstothespacesthatconsecrateworksofartaspartofthe
high art canon.
Chapter 3 “ART for Art: Augmented Reality Taxonomy for Art and Cultural
Heritage”proposesanactivity-basedtaxonomymethodthatisdesignedtoproduce
technology adoption insights. The proposed method is evaluated on adoption of
augmented reality technology in the context of art and cultural heritage. In this
process,anARTaxonomyforArtandCulturalHeritagehasbeenbuilt,whichwas
used to classify 86 AR applications in this domain. The results of classification
provided a meaningful insight into technology adoption, to name a few: general