Does tech reflect magic of Magritte?
Last week’s email included an invitation to SFMOMA for a “public beta experience” of Ubiquity6’s “first multi-player AR experience.” This would involve 100 people as part of “PlaySFMOMA, the museum’s initiative that encourages the development of avant-garde and experimental games.” The event was also to announce that the company had raised $27 million in its second round of venture funding.
Although I usually sit up and beg at the mention of “avant-garde,” the charm of electronic games has eluded me; I’d sat stone-faced when everyone was running around looking for Pokemon Go characters. Nonetheless, when a friend with whom I discussed this asked, “Don’t you want to expand your mind?” I couldn’t resist the challenge.
So there I was at the pre-demo reception with company officials and a gaggle of excited tech folks awaiting the opportunity to skip into the lobby wielding their phones and experiencing Magritte through the tech miracle of augmented reality.
Ubiquity6 CEO Anjney Midha greeted guests and proclaimed the demonstration a first: “So far in AR, games are limited to two people at once. Here, there can be about 100 players ... the single largest AR experience ever played.” Midha talked about “how to use mixed reality to tell stories that advance an exhibition,” and observed that the link between the game and Magritte, who “was blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination,” seemed to be a natural.
After being cautioned about bumping into regular museumgoers who might be there for “quiet contemplation” — this was a Thursday night and the museum was open until 9 p.m. — we strode forth with cell phones held high.
On screens in front of our eyes, doors, windows and corners appeared, beckoning navigation. Against that backdrop, pipes and bowler hats were among the floating objects; golden hats were to be tapped upon. Up one flight, an AR “sandbox” provided virtual cubes of color that players could place as tiles on an AR ceiling; there was also the capability of taking a selfie that would wind up on one side of a cube, thereby allowing one to put one’s image — just like Adam in the Sistine Chapel — on the AR ceiling.
Guided by able and patient PR woman Melissa Garrett, I was embarrassed to be somewhat mystified by the “avantgarde” description of the games, which seemed to me something of a tech version of shooting at a row of moving ducks at a county fair.
Ken and Kyle Schiller, literally tech bros, were both wearing bowler hats, thus demonstrating that they were winners, having encountered and tapped on a sufficient number of golden hats. Had skill been involved? “I wouldn’t say so,” said Kyle. He explained that the magic of the game was that if he tapped on the screen, someone else wandering about would see it on their screen. “That’s kind of a breakthrough.”
I crossed paths in the lobby with Sue Dykstra and Doug Thielscher, who had come to the museum without knowing anything of the demo and who asked me — a friendly face but probably not the best source for such an inquiry — what was going on.
She’s an occupational therapist, he’s a sculptor; it was their fourth anniversary and his surprise date was this outing to SFMOMA. They said they don’t play electronic games. “It doesn’t pull me in,” said Thielscher. “We clearly did not grow up at the same time as everyone here. If I’m on a screen, it’s not to do this. It’s to email or text or read the New York Times or The San Francisco Chronicle.”
But the invited crowd sure felt otherwise. Midha said the demo had gone off “way beyond our expectations. People had never tried this before, and people were allowed to have an experience they’d never had.”
Combining art with tech could introduce game lovers to fine art. The gamers, he said, are “young people, working people with everyday jobs who never considered themselves culture enthusiasts. But now they have an entryway with their phones to the work of one of the greatest artists . ... A lot of people are excited to hang out at the museum, where otherwise they would probably be watching Netflix.”
Having placed my selfie on the electronic ceiling, I went home feeling I’d inhabited an episode of “Silicon Valley” and wondering whether the path between tech and fine art is a two-way street. The app’s still on my phone.