Downtown art walk goes digital
There might be more than just meets the eye with Medicine Hat’s downtown core. Actually, there is. For the Esplanade’s upcoming July 14 Art Walk event, a group of local artists has designed and implemented what they are calling an augmented reality portion to the tour.
“To keep it as straight forward as possible, people are now able to point their phones at certain signs or pieces of architecture and by using a certain app ... some sort of digital art will pop up on their phone,” said producer and contributor James Kuehn.
The team consists of about 10 local artists, most of which are part of the visual communications program at Medicine Hat College. Kuehn, who also studied at MHC, said this project has been in the works for a little while, and follows a broad theme of living in the age of the Internet.
“This really is a merging of digital and analog,” he said. “It goes along with the theme of, ‘What you’re seeing in your surrounding environment isn’t everything.’ With this technology, we’re able to overlay art on top of these things — what we’re able to do with this is pretty amazing.”
The app required to take part is called “Aurasma” and it is free for all users. The only step required to use it is to sign up using an email address.
“This app has been pretty great for the time being,” said Kuehn. “It is easy to sign up for, and to use. The process is also pretty easy for the artists. All they need to do is look for a target, and they can design on top of it using other programs.”
A few of the locations for the art are certain cross walk signs, an information sign and the front of the Monarch Theatre.
Kuehn said the artists wanted to add a little more depth to the Esplanade’s traditional Art Walk.
“During the art walk people are walking from venue to venue,” he said. “We’re sort of a subset, in that, people can see our work, while walking from place to place. It adds another layer on to the walk.”
Kuehn said this will be the first time people will be experiencing this type of event in Medicine Hat.
“This is a fairly unique event, and it’s just one more way for people to experience art in Medicine Hat” he said. “When I was doing my studies on this, I came to realize pretty quickly that this isn’t something many places have experienced — so why not try it here?”
Kuehn said the goal is to continue working with MHC students to continue to add more art downtown.
To learn more about the Augmented Reality Art Walk and how to install the app needed to take part, go to www.thefactory9.com