Using augmented reality to hack public space #berlin #improvedreality

Posted on | October 25, 2010 | No Comments

With artists being pushed further and further away from city centers in urban areas across the western hemisphere – mainly due to gentrification and rapidly growing real-estate prices – the natural canvasses of the cities are increasingly being conquered by commercial messages rather than, say, street art. A development that is changing the faces of cities everywhere. However, new digital counter measures now see the light of day: This is called ‘Improved Reality’.

The Particle Decelerator blog features a clip about “a trend amongst artists to augment – or improve – our cities’ often overly commercial facades. One such example is the art project, “The Artvertiser”, created by Berlin-based New Zealander, Julian Oliver. It imagines a near-future where advertising in public space can be replaced by art. It consists of custom-made handheld binocular devices and specially designed software. The Artvertiser considers Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Times Square in New York, and other sites dense with advertisements, as potential exhibition space. The Artvertiser software recognises individual advertisements, each of which become a virtual ‘canvas’ displaying artworks when viewed through the Artvertiser binoculars. The Artvertiser allows artists to create a new visual layer onto the topology of the city, which can only be seen when viewed through a device which cogently blends the aesthetics of the past, with a futuristic functionality.”

Read the original post here.

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