Augmented Reality

Sonia Kretschmar > Augmented Reality

I have been experimenting with ‘Augmented Reality’ with varying degrees of success of late – it has been a great way to bring some animation back into my image making.

So how does it work / what on earth does it all mean? Well, basically, the still images that you see above can be viewed through an app on your mobile phone which brings the image to “life”. For example, when the top left image was printed onto ply and exhibited at the Illustrators Australia 9×5 show in 2018, visitors could download the “Artivive” app and see the piece animated in the gallery. The second image above was a further experiment on the theme of “Reality” which has not been exhibited as yet, but if you are viewing on a computer and you enlarge the images on your screen, it should work just as well!

For viewers:

Step 1: Download the Artivive app to your phone

Step 2: Enlarge the image on your computer screen

Step 3: With the app open, hover your phone over the image – the app should recognise the unique reference points of the picture and then work its magic.

For artists:

There may be a few ‘Augmented Reality’ hosts around, or there may be ways of creating your own app to serve a similar purpose. I found that Artivive, who are based in Vienna, offered a straight forward, functional option tailored to artists and galleries. Worth looking into if you are interested in experimenting with AR as a medium; I’ve always been interested in hidden stories in imagery, and this brings a whole new way of twisting narratives.

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