So What is Augmented Reality (ARt)?

Cara Heitz, Alaska Teacher of the Year 2012, views ARt through her iPad at the 2013 Alaska Society for Technology in Education Conference in Anchorage. The piece she is viewing is titled Buffalo, created by elementary student Jaida, for Ginger Christensen's Art Club at Butte Elementary School in Palmer, Alaska.

by Jason Ohler

Augmented Reality art (ARt) is artwork that combines what is on the gallery wall with what comes down from the cloud as you view it through your iPad (or other mobile screen). I see the potential for a new art form, as well as a tool that can be used in incredible ways across all content areas, from art to science to health.

Basically, AR works like this. You define a visual image as your trigger. This could be be any visually distinct object in RL (Real Life)- a phone, a sign, a painting on the wall... just about anything. Using AR software, in our case a free app called Aurasma, when your iPad sees the object it then calls up (triggers) something else to appear on your screen, called an overlay. You are now looking at the RL object, and the overlay, which blend together to create an augmented reality.

Here are just three ways that AR could be used in the development of a virtual art gallery.

1. A title triggers the artwork to appear. Imagine wandering around a conference hotel and coming upon a blank spot on a wall that is identified by nothing more than the kind of name plate you would see accompanying a painting in an art gallery. But when you view the nameplate using your iPad or smart phone, up comes an overlay of the student artwork on your screen, which appears with the title. The artwork can be a video, a scanned painting or photographed statue, a 3D sculpture with accompanying music...just about anything.

2. The artwork triggers a video interview with the artist. Or, perhaps the artwork is hanging on the wall. When you view it through your iPad there appears a video of the artist explaining the process used to create the artwork.

3. Part of the artwork triggers an overlay of the rest of the artwork, to complete the piece. Or perhaps you happen upon a piece of artwork that looks unfinished. As you are looking at it through your iPad, the rest of it is downloaded to your screen. You are now looking at a true mixed methods piece of artwork, consisting of what exists in RL (Real Life) and what the artist has added to it. The artwork is not finished until both parts are present.

We are just scratching the surface. McLuhan said that when we create new media forms, we tend to fill them with the content of older media forms. So, we create something called movies, and then use them to tell stories that we told using books or oral storytelling. Then, as the creative process evolves, we realize that the new media can actually facilitate new content and let us imagine new ways to make media, create art, tell stories, and be creative.

Right now ARt is in its earliest phases, and is adapting old content to new media. But I expect in the near future we will see what we recognize as ARt that is truly unique to the medium. This is an exciting time to be an artist. If you want to see some good examples of how augmented reality AR projects, go to Aurasma. And if the AR bug really bites you, simply go to You Tube or Google and search for augmented reality. AR is taking off in many directions.

Jason Ohler is an advocate for the use of new technologies in creating digital stories, augmented reality art, and other forms of expression. jasonohler@gmail.com