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Reiner-Roth, Shane. (2020, April 15). Augmented reality app designed to allow artists to sell work virtually. Retrieved from: https://www.archpaper.com/2020/04/augmented-reality-app-allows-artists-to-sell-work-virtually/

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Amid a nearly worldwide quarantine enacted to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, members of the art community have had to come up with new and novel methods of presenting their work without a physical audience. Developments in virtual visualization have seemingly accelerated at an unprecedented pace within the last several weeks, with virtual reality ( VR) and augmented reality ( AR) programs attempting to simulate the experience of visiting spaces and artwork in person through a variety of methods. Last month, for instance, the app-based art platform Acute Art presented EXPANDED HOLIDAY, an AR exhibition that placed 12 sculptures from the New York-based artist KAWS around the world.

Competing AR company and self-publishing platform ALL World, founded by artists Sebastian Errazuriz and Zander Eckblad, developed a similar, yet more open-access concept for less established artists to share their art with the world in the hopes of finding prospective buyers, in keeping with their tagline "augmented reality for all."

A video released by the company demonstrates the potential application of the app in use through New York City, beginning with a man entering the Metropolitan Museum of Art and digitally placing a bust of Mark Zuckerberg among Ancient Greek statuary, followed by the placement increasingly of large artworks set throughout the city's public squares.

A button on the home page encourages users to create their own "AR exhibition" by uploading a three-dimensional digital version of their physical objects and setting prices for their artworks. While the work will initially attempt to be placed at an accurate scale, users have the ability to enlarge it seemingly ad infinitum. The nascent website offers a small handful of artworks to virtually play with, several of which are provided by Errazuriz, whose work ranges from public art to interior architecture, as well as a speculative proposal for the renovation of Notre Dame.

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Augmented reality app designed to allow artists to sell work virtually

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Amid a nearly worldwide quarantine enacted to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, members of the art community have had to come up with new and novel methods of presenting their work without a physical audience.

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Reiner-Roth, Shane. (2020, April 15). Augmented reality app designed to allow artists to sell work virtually. Retrieved from: https://www.archpaper.com/2020/04/augmented-reality-app-allows-artists-to-sell-work-virtually/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Amid a nearly worldwide quarantine enacted to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, members of the art community have had to come up with new and novel methods of presenting their work without a physical audience. Developments in virtual visualization have seemingly accelerated at an unprecedented pace within the last several weeks, with virtual reality ( VR) and augmented reality ( AR) programs attempting to simulate the experience of visiting spaces and artwork in person through a variety of methods. Last month, for instance, the app-based art platform Acute Art presented EXPANDED HOLIDAY, an AR exhibition that placed 12 sculptures from the New York-based artist KAWS around the world.

Competing AR company and self-publishing platform ALL World, founded by artists Sebastian Errazuriz and Zander Eckblad, developed a similar, yet more open-access concept for less established artists to share their art with the world in the hopes of finding prospective buyers, in keeping with their tagline "augmented reality for all."

A video released by the company demonstrates the potential application of the app in use through New York City, beginning with a man entering the Metropolitan Museum of Art and digitally placing a bust of Mark Zuckerberg among Ancient Greek statuary, followed by the placement increasingly of large artworks set throughout the city's public squares.

A button on the home page encourages users to create their own "AR exhibition" by uploading a three-dimensional digital version of their physical objects and setting prices for their artworks. While the work will initially attempt to be placed at an accurate scale, users have the ability to enlarge it seemingly ad infinitum. The nascent website offers a small handful of artworks to virtually play with, several of which are provided by Errazuriz, whose work ranges from public art to interior architecture, as well as a speculative proposal for the renovation of Notre Dame.

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Augmented reality app designed to allow artists to sell work virtually

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Amid a nearly worldwide quarantine enacted to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, members of the art community have had to come up with new and novel methods of presenting their work without a physical audience.

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Concina, Margherita. (2021, January 07). Immersive Technology:The Future of Art.   Retrieved from: https://femaleonezero.com/technology/immersive-technology-the-future-of-art

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Lauren Moffatt is an Australian artist who works with a variety of mediums, from performance to videography and immersive technologies. Her piece Image Technology Echoes won first place at the 2020 VR Art Prize, and allows spectators to immerse themselves in the perspectives of two fictional gallery patrons. Through Virtual Reality, Moffatt seeks to bridge the gap between the viewer, the artist and the piece itself
In your Virtual Reality installations, you create spaces and characters for viewers to interact with. Do you think immersive technologies can encourage empathy and connectedness?
Well, that's the theory that I operate on. It's a little difficult to prove that it's the case, but this potential is what I find interesting about these technologies: That I can create a world that reflects the way I perceive things, or the way a character is experiencing things. I can allow viewers to inhabit that space and maybe allow them to access something they wouldn't have understood otherwise.
Was it the pandemic that inspired you to explore the theme of connectedness through virtual reality?
The pandemic made me think about my medium and my work in a different way and see it in a new light. It also meant that more people were reflecting on the types of things that I focus on in my work: this interest in subjectivity and embodied perception. But I'd already been working on these themes for some time before the pandemic. Some of the things that I'm exploring in Image Technology Echoes are the resolution of different strains of research that I have been working on for many years. Some of the objects and the digitized drawings and paintings in the piece are from my teenage years and early twenties. For instance, the self-portrait I drew from a subjective point of view was a work I made around 15 years ago.
KEY WORDS
Source: University of Sussex
What drew you to VR as a medium back then? Did you start your career with VR art?
No - I started with the question of what it is to see the world through from within a body. I began by trying to reproduce embodied perspectives using painting. But the process was taking too long, because I needed to experiment quite a bit, so I started working with small digital cameras and with Photoshop and Final Cut to make video collages. Through those works, I got into stereoscopic 3D filmmaking where two cameras create the illusion of 3D; this was around 2012, when there was a lot of interest in that technology. Since I was working with 3D techniques, and because I'd already spent all of this time thinking about the way that we inhabit and perceive space, it was natural for me to move into Virtual Reality from there. My doorway into VR was when I was invited to the Sundance Film Festival with one of my stereoscopic 3D installations. At Sundance, I met somebody from Oculus, which was still a start-up at that point. They liked my work, and they gave me a development kit which I used to make my first work in cooperation with FACT Liverpool.
What do you think people are drawn to in VR art? What is unique about this medium?
For me, what is special is the opportunity to be immersed in something completely different from where you just were, to access a different dimension. And I find it's special to inhabit a virtual space which an artist has built as self-expression, because they have so much control over everything that surrounds you. This makes the relationship between the author and the audience so intimate. And actually, the connection between the audience and the virtual world itself is very intimate as well, because there's no way to make a tune out of it - it overtakes all of your senses. That makes quite an impression, and also requires a certain amount of trust.
Do you think of immersive technology as a double-edged sword in terms of connection? Because despite this possibility of intimacy, there's a certain escapism in being somewhere that doesn't correspond to the physical world.
Yeah, I definitely feel that. I don't want to be part of something that's just giving everybody another way to pretend that all of the problems in the world aren't there. This dystopic vision is often shown in science fiction movies or stories. It's associated with a world where capitalism has completely taken over and people are basically being driven by simulations that they need to be inside all the time. I obviously don't want that, that's not why I'm working with Virtual Reality. The other problem I see is that audiences could eventually become desensitized, like they did with cinema and with TV. At this moment in history, viewers aren't prepared for the special immersive situation that they're put into, so it really affects them. But if VR becomes mainstream, it could be a short-lived thing that virtual environments make such an impression on people.
Could this lead to new forms of trauma porn?
Evangelists of VR feel that it allows people to inhabit the same space as somebody else who's on the other side of the world, and therefore to empathize with that person, but it can be jarring how problematic these pitches sometimes sound: As if seeing a 360° video of a natural disaster in a developing country from the comfort of my Western life allows me to understand anything about that experience. There is a disconnectedness about some of these ideas that is really troubling.
Despite this, can VR art help the world in the future?
VR gives the artist so much control over the environment. These tools that we have are so incredible, because you can build an entire world. Artists are able to build visions of what they also want to see, optimistic visions that invite people into what's possible. And I find that truly great. For a long time, artists have been outside of the conversation about how things should progress in the world, and I feel like VR could allow creators to use their skills for real change rather than operating at the perimeters of society.
More resources on VR art

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In this three-part series, experts from different fields explain how immersive technologies can make a real impact on society and business. Artists building virtual worlds, images constantly flowing on AR glasses... What are the possibilities? The second interview features artist Lauren Moffatt, in conversation about VR as a creative medium

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Adobe. (2018,  August 21). How Artists Are Shaping the Future of Augmented Reality. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9-PMm6YdUU

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How Artists Are Shaping the Future of Augmented Reality

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Ainars, Klavins. (2020, March 18).  Augmented reality art: opportunities and examples for artists and creatives.  Retrieved from https://overlyapp.com/blog/augmented-reality-art-opportunities-and-examples-for-artists-and-creatives/

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You don't have to hone your IT skills to become an augmented reality artist

I wanted to start with the above point, because, in my experience, artists often think that they need to be gurus of traditional art and tech-innate at the same time. This is absolutely not the case, because:

1. There are different forms of augmented reality, including video and photo overlays. There are also platforms such as Overly app that allow people with no tech skills to put together their artworks with digital media. Bridging the gap between tech and art, such platforms help artists exploit basic levels of AR

2. If you want to create animated and 3D experiences - collaborate. A lot of projects that we deliver are based on partnerships. There are illustrators, animators, audio producers, multimedia artists, videographers, 3D designers, and so the list goes on. It is usually multimedia artists who have a background in digital design or contemporary art that go it alone. Still, they need to find partners who provide augmented reality hosting services that meet their needs, which again means that you can never really go alone with this form of ARt

3. Traditional artworks, even old-school paintings can serve as augmented reality markers. The art piece itself doesn't have to be affected by its new augmented reality layer.

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Augmented reality art: opportunities and examples for artists and creatives

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I wanted to start with the above point, because, in my experience, artists often think that they need to be gurus of traditional art and tech-innate at the same time. This is absolutely not the case, because: There are different forms of augmented reality, including video and photo overlays.