Stir 'Splainer: Three VMF Winter Arts creators tell the stories behind their augmented-reality experiences
You can navigate their virtual installations in an outdoor gallery downtown, February 12 to 28
VMF WINTER ARTS is an all-new festival downtown that takes the idea of public art to high-tech new levels.
Put on by the folks at Vancouver Mural Festival in a presentation with the Downtown BIA, the project has invited 23 artists to create an augmented-reality outdoor gallery, where virtual and physical worlds merge.
Experience the fest on your own or with your bubble, using your cellphone from February 12 to 28; found out more about the 20-plus sites and dowload the app at vanmuralfest.ca.
Three of the show’s artists tell Stir the back story on their works. Note that what we show you here is just a hint of the immersive, in-situ virtual worlds they’ll create.
Syrus Marcus Ware’s Activist Wallpaper Series (shown at top)
Bute and Davie pop-up plaza
For the AR experience, viewers hover their phones over the words to reveal illustrated activist portraits and descriptions. A full poem is also displayed on-site.
Ware is an artist, scholar, activist and core member of Black Lives Matter-Toronto; he has an art exhibit at Wil Aballe Art Projects in Vancouver this month
“I have been creating large-scale portraits of activists/revolutionaries as a way of celebrating activists culture, activists lives and activist aesthetics. These portraits are an act of reverence, a celebration of life and of choice and of action(s). I began creating wallpaper with the portraits to imagine a different landscape wherein activists were honoured and cared for- centered in our day. For this installation I have created a poem that reflects on this year of activism, the pandemic and our collective wonder: ‘is this it? is this when everything changes?’”
Will Selviz’s Homeaway—Dismissal
Will Selviz’s Homeaway: Dismissal/Embracing
Two AR experiences at the VPL central branch plaza.
Will Selviz is an Afro Caribbean, multidimensional designer based in Toronto, ON. His personal work is heavily influenced by the juxtaposing cultural experiences growing up in Venezuela and Kuwait. A tech geek and designer at heart,. Will is constantly integrating emerging technologies, such as VR, AR, 3D animation and 360 video, into his work.
“It takes courage to give up the comfort and familiarity of our homeland for a better future. This piece is for my fellow immigrants, temporary residents, refugees and newcomers. This is for those who bought a one-way ticket to a country they had never visited, and are still waiting for the day to return. This is a reminder to be kind to those who are making that leap, especially during these times of social isolation.
“As a fourth-generation immigrant, the word home lost its geographic context over time. I embraced that home will always be within me, and within those I love and cherish. The immigrant experience is heavily influenced by our day-to-day interactions with others, whether they are positive or negative. This piece juxtaposes the feelings of judgement and acceptance that make or break our experience as immigrants.”
Tracey Kim Bonneau’s Syilx Huckleberry Project
Nelson Square
Bonneau is an Indigenous television writer and producer from the Penticton Indian Reserve. She’s one of four Media Matriarchs at IM4 Media Lab, who curated six of VMF Winter Arts’ Indigenous AR artists.
“My ECO AR Huckleberry Project was inspired by my efforts as a syilx woman to create an ecological experience as a way to protect our high mountain huckleberry habitat. This world of AR art allows me to articulate my creative passions embedded by our syilx philosophies of traditional science and the timix (all living things). Viewers can move, rotate, and appreciate the absolute beauty and vibrance of our high mountain huckleberry. The viewer can experience the 3D huckleberry bush, as if they were a tiny mosquito, or a faraway sandhill crane above the sky. This project will span over at least five years.”
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