Vol 19 No 2 Volume Editors Lanfranco Aceti and Richard Rinehart Editors Özden Şahin, Jonathan Munro and Catherine M

LEA is a publication of Leonardo/ISAST.

vol 19 no 2 Volume Editors Lanfranco Aceti and Richard Rinehart Editors Özden Şahin, Jonathan Munro and Catherine M. Weir This LEA publication has a simple goal: surveying the current trends in augmented reality artistic interventions. There is no other substantive academic collection currently available, and it is with a certain pride that LEA presents this volume which provides a snapshot of current trends as well as a moment of reflection on the future ofAR interventions. Copyright 2013 ISAST Editorial Address Leonardo Electronic Almanac Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 19 Issue 2 Sabanci University, Orhanli – Tuzla, 34956 Date of publication April 15, 2013 Istanbul, Turkey ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-23-9 Email The ISBN is provided by Goldsmiths, University of London. [email protected]

lea publishing & subscription information Web Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Volume 19 Issue 2 » www.leoalmanac.org Editor in Chief » www.twitter.com/LEA_twitts Lanfranco Aceti [email protected] » www.flickr.com/photos/lea_gallery Not Here Not There » www.facebook.com/pages/Leonardo-Electronic- Co-Editor Almanac/209156896252 Özden Şahin [email protected] Volume Editors

Managing Editor Copyright © 2013 Lanfranco Aceti and Richard Rinehart John Francescutti [email protected] Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology Editors Art Director Özden Şahin, Jonathan Munro and Catherine M. Weir Deniz Cem Önduygu [email protected] Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by: Leonardo/ISAST Editorial Board 211 Sutter Street, suite 501 Peter J. Bentley, Ezequiel Di Paolo, Ernest Edmonds, Felice San Francisco, CA 94108 Frankel, Gabriella Giannachi, Gary Hall, Craig Harris, Sibel Irzık, USA Marina Jirotka, Beau Lotto, Roger Malina, Terrence Masson, Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) is a project of Leonardo/ Jon McCormack, Mark Nash, Sally Jane Norman, Christiane The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technol- Paul, Simon Penny, Jane Prophet, Jeffrey Shaw, William ogy. For more information about Leonardo/ISAST’s publica- Uricchio tions and programs, see http://www.leonardo.info or contact [email protected]. Contributing Editors Nina Czegledy, Susan Collins, Leonardo Da Vinci, Anna Leonardo Electronic Almanac is produced by Dumitriu, Vince Dziekan, Darko Fritz, Marco Gillies, Davin Passero Productions. Heckman, Saoirse Higgins, Jeremy Hight, Denisa Kera, Frieder Nake, Vinoba Vinayagamoorthy Reposting of this journal is prohibited without permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and events listings which have been independently received.

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Not Here, Not There: An Analysis Of An International The Leonardo Electronic Almanac Collaboration To Survey acknowledges the kind support for this issue of Augmented Reality Art

Every published volume has a reason, a history, a ties and differences, contradictions and behavioral conceptual underpinning as well as an aim that ulti- approaches. The interviews add a further layer of mately the editor or editors wish to achieve. There documentation which, linked to the artists’ statements, is also something else in the creation of a volume; that provides an overall understanding of the hopes for is the larger goal shared by the community of authors, this new artistic playground or new media extension. artists and critics that take part in it. What I personally wanted to give relevance to in this volume is the artistic creative process. I also wanted to This volume of LEA titled Not Here, Not There had a evidence the challenges faced by the artists in creat- simple goal: surveying the current trends in augment- ing artworks and attempting to develop new thinking ed reality artistic interventions. There is no other sub- and innovative aesthetic approaches. stantive academic collection currently available, and it is with a certain pride that both, Richard Rinehart and The whole volume started from a conversation that I myself, look at this endeavor. Collecting papers and had with Tamiko Thiel – that was recorded in Istanbul images, answers to interviews as well as images and at Kasa Gallery and that lead to a curatorial collabo- artists’ statements and putting it all together is per- ration with Richard. The first exhibitionNot Here at haps a small milestone; nevertheless I believe that this the Samek Art Gallery, curated by Richard Reinhart, will be a seminal collection which will showcase the was juxtaposed to a response from Kasa Gallery with trends and dangers that augmented reality as an art the exhibition Not There, in Istanbul. The conversa- form faces in the second decade of the XXIst century. tions between Richard and myself produced this final volume –Not Here, Not There – which we both As editor, I did not want to shy away from more criti- envisaged as a collection of authored papers, artists’ cal essays and opinion pieces, in order to create a statements, artworks, documentation and answers to documentation that reflects the status of the current some of the questions that we had as curators. This is thinking. That these different tendencies may or may the reason why we kept the same questions for all of not be proved right in the future is not the reason for the interviews – in order to create the basis for a com- the collection, instead what I believe is important and parative analysis of different aesthetics, approaches relevant is to create a historical snapshot by focusing and processes of the artists that work in augmented on the artists and authors developing artistic practices reality. and writing on augmented reality. For this reason, Richard and I posed to the contributors a series of When creating the conceptual structures for this col- questions that in the variegated responses of the lection my main personal goal was to develop a link artists and authors will evidence and stress similari- – or better to create the basis for a link – between ear-

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lier artistic interventions in the 1960s and the current porary artists that use augmented reality as a medium. in order to gather audiences to make the artworks making use of their better knowledge of the AR media. artistic interventions of artists that use augmented Here, is not perhaps the place to focus on the role of come alive is perhaps a shortsighted approach that Nevertheless, this is knowledge born out of neces- reality. ‘publicity’ in art history and artistic practices, but a few does not take into consideration the audience’s neces- sity and scarcity of means, and at times appears to be words have to be spent in order to explain that pub- sity of knowing that interaction is possible in order for more effective than the institutional messages arriving My historical artist of reference was Yayoi Kusama licity for AR artworks is not solely a way for the artist that interaction to take place. from well-established art organizations. I should also and the piece that she realized for the Venice Bien- to gain notoriety, but an integral part of the artwork, add that publicity is functional in AR interventions to nial in 1966 titled Narcissus Garden. The artwork was which in order to come into existence and generate What perhaps should be analyzed in different terms the construction of a community – a community of a happening and intervention at the Venice Biennial; interactions and engagements with the public has to is the evolution of art in the second part of the XXth aficionados, similar to the community of ‘nudists’ that Kusama was obliged to stop selling her work by the be communicated to the largest possible audience. century, as an activity that is no longer and can no follows Spencer Tunic for his art events / human in- biennial’s organizers for ‘selling art too cheaply.’ longer be rescinded from publicity, since audience stallation. “By then, Kusama was widely assumed to be a public- engagement requires audience attendance and atten- “In 1966 […] she went uninvited to the Venice Biennale. ity hound, who used performance mainly as a way of dance can be obtained only through communication / I think what is important to remember in the analysis There, dressed in a golden kimono, she filled the lawn gaining media exposure.” 2 The publicity obsession, publicity. The existence of the artwork – in particular of the effectiveness both in aesthetic and participa- outside the Italian pavilion with 1,500 mirrored balls, or the accusation of being a ‘publicity hound’ could of the successful AR artwork – is strictly measured in tory terms of augmented reality artworks – is not which she offered for sale for 1,200 lire apiece. The be easily moved to the contemporary group of artists numbers: numbers of visitors, numbers of interviews, their publicity element, not even their sheer numbers authorities ordered her to stop, deeming it unaccept- that use augmented reality. Their invasions of spaces, numbers of news items, numbers of talks, numbers (which, by the way, are what has made these artworks able to ‘sell art like hot dogs or ice cream cones.’” 1 juxtapositions, infringements could be defined as of interactions, numbers of clicks, and, perhaps in a successful) but their quality of disruption. nothing more than publicity stunts that have little to not too distant future, numbers of coins gained. The The conceptualization and interpretation of this ges- do with art. These accusations would not be just ir- issue of being a ‘publicity hound’ is not a problem that The ability to use – in Marshall McLuhan’s terms – the ture by critics and art historians is that of a guerrilla relevant but biased – since – as in the case of Sander applies to artists alone, from Andy Warhol to Damien medium as a message in order to impose content by- action that challenged the commercialization of the Veenhof’s analysis in this collection – the linkage Hirst from Banksy to Maurizio Cattelan, it is also a passing institutional control is the most exciting ele- art system and that involved the audience in a process between the existence of the artwork as an invisible method of evaluation that affects art institutions and ment of these artworks. It is certainly a victory that a that revealed the complicit nature and behaviors of presence and its physical manifestation and engage- museums alike. The accusation moved to AR artists of group of artists – by using alternative methodological the viewers as well as use controversy and publicity as ment with the audience can only happen through being media whores – is perhaps contradictory when approaches to what are the structures of the capital- an integral part of the artistic practice. knowledge, through the audience’s awareness of arriving from institutional art forms, as well as galler- istic system, is able to enter into that very capitalistic the existence of the art piece itself that in order to ies and museums that have celebrated publicity as an system in order to become institutionalized and per- Kusama’s artistic legacy can perhaps be resumed in achieve its impact as an artwork necessitates to be element of the performative character of both artists haps – in the near future – be able to make money in these four aspects: a) engagement with audience’s publicized. and artworks and an essential element instrumental to order to make art. behaviors, b) issues of art economy and commercial- the institutions’ very survival. ization, c) rogue interventions in public spaces and d) Even if, I do not necessarily agree with the idea of a Much could be said about the artist’s need of fitting publicity and notoriety. ‘necessary manifestation’ and audience’s knowledge of The publicity stunts of the augmented reality interven- within a capitalist system or the artist’s moral obliga- the artwork – I believe that an artistic practice that is tions today are nothing more than an acquired meth- tion to reject the basic necessities to ensure an op- These are four elements that characterize the work unknown is equally valid – I can nevertheless under- odology borrowed from the second part of the XXth erational professional existence within contemporary practices and artistic approaches – in a variety of stand the process, function and relations that have to century. This is a stable methodology that has already capitalistic structures. This becomes, in my opinion, a combinations and levels of importance – of contem- be established in order to develop a form of engage- been widely implemented by public and private art question of personal ethics, artistic choices and ex- ment and interaction between the AR artwork and the institutions in order to promote themselves and their istential social dramas. Let’s not forget that the vast

1. David Pilling, “The World According to Yayoi Kusama,” The audience. To condemn the artists who seek publicity artists. majority of artists – and AR artists in particular – do Financial Times, January 20, 2012, http://www.ft.com/ not have large sums and do not impinge upon national cms/s/2/52ab168a-4188-11e1-8c33-00144feab49a. 2. Isabelle Loring Wallace and Jennie Hirsh, Contemporary Art Publicity and community building have become an budgets as much as banks, financial institutions, mili- html#axzz1kDck8rzm (accessed March 1, 2013). & Classical Myth (Farnham; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011), 94. artistic methodology that AR artists are playing with by taries and corrupt politicians. They work for years

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Site, Non-site, and Website

with small salaries, holding multiple jobs and making hundred dollars, and they lend themselves to collabo- In the 1960’s, artist Robert Smithson articulated the and virtual memorials. Moreover, public space is personal sacrifices; and the vast majority of them does rations based on global networks. strategy of representation summarized by “site vs. now truly open, as artworks can be placed any- not end up with golden parachutes or golden hand- non-site” whereby certain artworks were simultane- where in the world, without prior permission from shakes upon retirement nor causes billions of damage Problems though remain for the continued success of ously abstract and representational and could be site- government or private authorities – with profound to society. augmented reality interventions. Future challenges are specific without being sited. A pile of rocks in a gallery implications for art in the public sphere and the in the materialization of the artworks for sale, to name is an “abstract” way to represent their site of origin. discourse that surrounds it.” The current success of augmented reality interven- an important one. Unfortunately, unless the relation- In the 1990’s net.art re-de-materialized the art object tions is due in small part to the nature of the medium. ship between collectors and the ‘object’ collected and found new ways to suspend the artwork online ManifestAR develops projects using Augmented Real- Museums and galleries are always on the lookout for changes in favor of immaterial objects, the problem between website and non-site. In the 21st century, ity (AR), a new technology that – like photography be- ‘cheap’ and efficient systems that deliver art engage- to overcome for artists that use augmented reality new technologies suggest a reconsideration of the re- fore it – allows artists to consider questions like those ment, numbers to satisfy the donors and the national intervention is how and in what modalities to link the lationship between the virtual and the real. “Hardlinks” above in new ways. Unlike Virtual Reality, Augmented institutions that support them, artworks that deliver AR installations with the process of production of an such as QR codes attempt to bind a virtual link to our Reality is the art of overlaying virtual content on top of visibility for the gallery and the museum, all of it with- object to be sold. physical environment. physical reality. Using AR apps on smart phones, iPads, out requiring large production budgets. Forgetting and other devices, viewers look at the real world that art is also about business, that curating is also Personally I believe that there are enough precedents Throughout the 1970’s, institutional critique brought around them through their phone’s camera lens, while about managing money, it means to gloss over an im- that AR artists could refer to, from Christo to Marina political awareness and social intervention to the site the app inserts additional images or 3D objects into portant element – if not the major element – that an Abramovich, in order develop methods and frame- of the museum. In the 1980’s and 90’s, street artist the scene. For instance, in the work Signs over Semi- artist has to face in order to deliver a vision. works to present AR artworks as collectable and such as Banksy went in the opposite direction, critiqu- conductors by Will Pappenheimer, a blue sky above sellable material objects. The artists’ ability to do so, ing the museum by siting their art beyond its walls. a Silicon Valley company that is “in reality” empty Augmented reality artworks bypass these financial to move beyond the fractures and barriers of insti- contains messages from viewers in skywriting smoke challenges, like daguerreotypes did by delivering a tutional vs. revolutionary, retaining the edge of their Sited art and intervention art meet in the art of the when viewed through an AR-enabled Smartphone. cheaper form of portraiture than oil painting in the aesthetics and artworks, is what will determine their trespass. What is our current relationship to the sites first part of the XIXth century, or like video did in the future success. we live in? What representational strategies are con- AR is being used to activate sites ranging from Occupy 1970s and like digital screens and projectors have temporary artists using to engage sites? How are sites Wall Street to the art exhibition ManifestAR @ ZERO1 done in the 1990s until now, offering cheaper systems These are the reasons why I believe that this collec- politically activated? And how are new media framing Biennial 2012 – presented by the Samek Art Gallery to display moving as well as static images. AR in this tion of essays will prove to be a piece, perhaps a small our consideration of these questions? The contempo- simultaneously at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA sense has a further advantage from the point of view piece, of future art history, and why in the end it was rary art collective ManifestAR offers one answer, and at Silicon Valley in San Jose, CA. From these con- of the gallery – the gallery has no longer a need to worth the effort. temporary non-sites, and through the papers included purchase hardware because audiences bring their “Whereas the public square was once the quintes- in this special issue of LEA, artists ask you to recon- own hardware: their mobile phones. sential place to air grievances, display solidarity, sider the implications of the simple question wayn Lanfranco Aceti express difference, celebrate similarity, remember, (where are you now?) The materiality of the medium, its technological revo- Editor in Chief, Leonardo Electronic Almanac mourn, and reinforce shared values of right and lutionary value, in the case of early augmented reality Director, Kasa Gallery wrong, it is no longer the only anchor for interac- Richard Rinehart artworks plays a pivotal role in order to understand its tions in the public realm. That geography has been Director, Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University success. It is ubiquitous, can be replicated everywhere relocated to a novel terrain, one that encourages in the world, can be installed with minimal hassle and exploration of mobile location based monuments, can exist, independently from the audience, institutions and governmental permissions. Capital costs for AR installations are minimal, in the order of a few

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Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 19 Issue 2

5 EDITORIAL Lanfranco Aceti LOCATION-BASED VIRTUAL 112 INTERVENTIONS: TRANSCENDING SPACE THROUGH MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY 9 INTRODUCTION Richard Rinehart AS A FIELD FOR ARTISTIC CREATION + Interview, Statement, Artwork Alejandro Schianchi SPATIAL ART: AN ERUPTION OF THE 12 DIGITAL INTO THE PHYSICAL INVISIBLE - IN YOUR FACE + Interview 136 + Interview, Statement, Artwork Simona Lodi Sander Veenhof

LEAF++: TRANSFORMATIVE LANDSCAPES DISCOVERING THE NON-SELF: THE 36 + Interview, Statement, Artwork 146 CONSTRUCTION OF LANGUAGE, TRANCE, Salvatore Iaconesi, Luca Simeone, Oriana Persico, AND SPACE Cary Hendrickson + Interview, Statement, Artwork Judson Wright AUGMENTED IRREALITY 52 + Interview, Statement, Artwork Interview, Statement, Artwork Chiara Passa 168 Maria Anwander

NOT NOW, PERHAPS LATER: TIME Interview, Statement, Artwork 72 CAPSULES AS COMMUNICATIONS WITH 180 Ruben Aubrecht THE FUTURE + Statement Interview, Statement, Artwork Jo Ann Oravec 190 A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz

MECHANICS OF PLACE: TEXTURES OF Interview, Statement, Artwork 84 TOPHANE 198 Mark Skwarek + Interview, Statement, Artwork Hana Iverson & Sarah Drury Interview, Statement, Artwork 210 Tamiko Thiel “IMAGE AS PLACE”: THE PHENOMENAL 98 SCREEN IN KIT GALLOWAY & SHERRIE Interview RABINOWITZ’S SATELLITE ARTS 1977 220 Patrick Lichty Kris Paulsen

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ABSTRACT

Location-based Location-based virtual interventions provide a new field for artistic creation through the use of augmented reality technology for mobile virtual interventions electronic devices. This field considers the possibility of transcending the physical and territorial boundaries of a real space as axes of a new kind Transcending space through mobile augmented reality of artistic work which re-conceptualizes urban, rural, public and private as a field for artistic creation spaces in terms of virtual content, and vice versa. In addition, this new configuration of a hybrid space (real/virtual) allows for the questioning of by spaces of art legitimation and positions of power, their history and access to them. In accounting for these new possibilities, a description will be pro- ALEJANDRO SCHIANCHI vided of previous virtual reality experiences, fixed augmented reality, and

Department of Arts and Culture the beginning of mobile augmented reality; those will be compared to the UNTREF (National University of Tres de Febrero) current situation of massive mobile devices and ubiquitous services. Taking Caseros, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina [email protected] into consideration the work of international artists and my personal expe- http://schianchi.com.ar/ riences using this technology with aesthetic purposes, I will describe a very recent scenario of electronic arts.

I. INTRODUCTION

In the last few years, mobile devices, like smart- user. Internet content is accessible to all in, anytime, the beginnings of the twentieth century; it is also This new field, named “electronically augmented phones and tablets, have become small laptops anywhere and exactly the same for everyone. This displayed in the different forms of sculpture in the spaces” by Lev Manovich, 1 translates physical spaces which move together with the subject who car- characteristic, which might be pointed as one of the expanded field, such as installations, interventions and into data: information is extracted using surveillance ries them; he/she has the possibility of using these most interesting aspects of the Internet towards the land-art. At the same time, we might also consider the and monitoring mechanisms, and then they are aug- devices “while” the relocation is performed. The user democratization of information, also creates a discon- Latin-American mural painting movement and current mented with data and information, generally through interacts, not only with mobile networks, but also with nection from the sense of “place” and the perception urban interventions with stencils or graffiti as more screens. Creating tension between these two ele- Internet, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), takes pho- of what the term “local” means. direct access predecessors to works and interventions ments and overlaying virtual information over the real tographs and creates video, alowing them to visualize in non-authorized spaces. view of physical space (depending on the position of the world around them. S/he is also able to eventually The Internet virtual world, which so far had been the spectator/user), it is possible to produce what access virtual content which connect the information- portrayed as a separate, parallel cartography with no As we mentioned before, in the particular field of Manovich called the “poetics of augmented space.” al world of data to the real geographical space. points of contact with the real world, can now start electronic art, virtual creations generally established to be linked directly to material and physical space by themselves as a world disconnected from real space. In connection to this, we will analyze in detail some The boom of the Internet in the last twenty years and means of mobile augmented reality technology. Through the technical possibilities provided by new productions which propose subversion of physical the production of specific content for the Internet as- mobile electronic devices and the use of augmented laws (gravity, mobility, size) and property laws (ter- sume a virtual, immaterial and untranscending charac- In the artistic field, the relationship of a work of art reality applications, both worlds can now connect to ritorial, access control, copyright) through a virtual ter of a particular localization; all this from the point of with the specific space where it is exhibited has been each other, and can be accessed in a massive and de- intervention linked to the place where its is located in view both of the creator and the spectator/consumer/ explored by the Soviet constructivist movement since centralized way. physical space.

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sight and interaction. This always occurs in a limited, paper. In other words, the dream of a virtual simula- monitored real space within the three walls, and by tion notion through computer systems builds its illu- means of cables which reduce mobility to the bound- sion upon the denial of the physical space where it is aries of the screens. Virtual space is entirely discon- being performed. nected from real space; in fact, the surfaces where the projections are displayed block the sight beyond the images. The purpose is precisely to lose track of physical space where, in turn, the illusion is created. This is Image 1. Simplified drawing of the different virtuality levels. Included in “Augmented Reality: A one of the great differences in connection to what we class of displays on the reality-virtuality continuum.” Image courtesy of Paul Milgram. All rights will call “augmented reality.” reserved. For the artistic world, the possibilities offered by vir- On the basis of the various levels of virtuality classi- at Philco Corporation during 1961, the electronic tual reality were of great interest since its first incep- fied by Milgram, Takemura, Utsumi and Kishino,2 our flight simulators in England and the U.S. as from the tion. This could be due to, what the artist and theorist Image 3. Inverter la terre, 1986, Jeffrey Shaw. Museum of research will first clarify the technical and conceptual 1970s, the “Sayre Glove” by R. Sayre, D. Sandin, and Jeffrey Shaw claimed: “The traditional activity of art Science and Industry, La Villette, Paris, France. © Jeffrey differences between the Virtual Environment and T. DeFanti in 1977 with its following versions like the has been the representation of reality – manipulating Shaw. All rights reserved. Augmented Reality. Based on the characteristics of “Digital Data Entry Glove” by G. Grimes in Bell Labs, or materials to create tangible mirrors of our experience each level, some examples will be provided of elec- the “DataGlove” by T. Zimmerman, and the virtual real- and desire. Now with the mechanisms of the new This is why a previous piece by Jeffrey Shaw named tronic art works which have used those systems. We ity immersion system “CAVE” launched in 1992. All this digital technologies, the artwork can become itself a Inventer la Terre (1986) may turn out to be more will then move forward to analyze the new possibili- in addition to commercial use by Jaron Lanier, films simulation of reality – an immaterial digital structure interesting to us. In this case, one of the possible ties arising from the use of mobile augmented reality like “Tron” (1982), the concept of Holodeck in “Star encompassing synthetic spaces which we can literally views when the spectator watched through the metal technology compared to those mentioned above. Trek,” and fiction books like “Neuromancer” by William enter.” 10 column (a sort of periscope) was the (optical) real Gibson and “Lawnmover” by Stephen King. 6 7 8 9 direct image of the museum with an overlaying virtual In 1975 Myron Krueger created the first version of image through an optical simulation; this created the II. VIRTUAL REALITY: THE WORLD IN THE CAVE We will identify the features of the CAVE system as Videoplace, where through cameras and video projec- sense of coexistence among the virtual objects and one of the paradigmatic developments in this sense to tors people in different rooms shared a virtual space the physical space. If we are to narrow down our definition of virtual- differentiate it from those systems of augmented real- that was projected on a screen; their bodies became ity and mixed spaces, we can take one of the better ity which will be described later. Here the user is inside colored silhouettes interacting with the rest of the known concepts in the field of virtual works: virtual a space with stereoscopic contents projected on three participants in real time. A second version of the work III. FIXED AUGMENTED REALITY: FROM reality. of the walls and the floor; they modify following the was produced in 1984 where Krueger included a ENGINEERING TO ART movements of the user’s body to simulate immersion process of analysis and recognition of images to cre- Although this concept can be related to Plato and in a three-dimensional virtual space. ate more complex interactions among the spectators’ One of the key moments in the beginning of aug- his premises on the different levels of reality and the movements and some graphics displayed in the virtual mented reality technology is the development by Ivan world of Ideas, as well as his celebrated “Allegory of space on the screen. 11 Sutherland of the Head-mounted Display in 1968. 13 the Cave,” it has a much more recent history. Antonin This helmet was used at the same time to watch the Artaud uses this term in his 1932 book The Theater Another iconic work in virtual reality systems was The “real” space in which the user was located (exactly as and its Double 4 when he refers to the identity of the Legible City (1989) by Jeffrey Shaw. A user navigates it would be seen without the helmet) and overlaying characters, objects, images and everything which com- around a three-dimensional virtual city made up of ‘virtual’ contents, depending on the point of view and poses the virtual reality of theater in connection with words through an interface similar to a bike. The the subject’s movements. the alchemical spirit. However, it is in the late 1980s course of the simulation is controlled with the speed and during the 1990s that this expression will be as- of riding and the direction of the handlebars. sociated with an interface “that uses computers and Image 2. CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) sys- human-computer interfaces to create the effect of a tem. Image on the right is of public domain. Image on the The idea of immersion was a big part of the goal in the three-dimensional world in which the user interacts left is courtesy of Advanced Visualization Lab, Pervasive development of systems and interest of artists which directly with virtual objects.” 5 We can mention some Technology Institute at Indiana University. All rights reserved. worked with virtual reality, and provides as a reference developments in this sense: the 1956 “Sensorama” the analysis of Oliver Grau. 12 Immersion is one of the system by Morton Heilig, the head-mounted dis- The evident intention is to generate a “simulation” of possible lines to working with virtual creations, and Image 4. Head Mounted Display, 1968, Ivan Sutherland. play (HMD) “Headsight” by C. Comeau and J. Bryan reality, in human perceptive time, especially through maybe the counterpart of what we will analyze in this Screenshots from video documentation. © Ivan Sutherland.

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IV. MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY: UBIQUITY

The first experiences of mobile augmented reality are nearer in time as they need a mobile technological platform which could integrate data processing (a computer), a friendly entry interface (touch-sensitive and the motion sensors in the device) and an output interface (mobile display, for the head or the retina), Some years before, in 1965, Ivan Sutherland himself generated tension between what our eyes were see- geo-positioning, in many cases wireless data connec- Despite isolated attempts like Nokia’s MARA (Mobile had presented in his famous “The Ultimate Display” 14 ing in that space which was only a platform of empty tion (to the Internet or other network), as well as the Augmented Reality Applications) project in 2006, 17 the idea of mixing virtual contents with “real” physi- exposition, and a screen which displayed an object power necessary for all these elements to operate for it is not until mass-marketing of smartphones during cal spaces. He proposed an interface layout which lying on that same platform. a reasonable amount of time. the past three years that we can talk about aesthetic intended to associate the virtual with the real world to and content production in terms of mobile augmented the point where a virtual bullet would impact the real The Golden Calf project, which pioneered the aug- Although these elements were not integrated into reality. This is especially so because for different user’s body, killing him/her. mented reality technology from an aesthetic point of mobile devices nor were introduced to the market reasons – which in my view have nothing to do with view (as well as Sutherland’s, Caudell’s and Mizell’s massively until thethe twenty first century. In 1996 augmented reality – we are eventually presented with The development of this kind of technology gained developments in engineering), requires that the dis- Steve Feiner and some colleagues created one of the a palm-sized mobile electronic device which has all new momentum with the experiments of Tom Caudell play be physically connected (with cables) to an elec- first research and development projects which in- the technical requirements demanded by augmented and David Mizell at the Boeing company, published in tronic device generating real-time virtual information tended to achieve this: the MARS (Mobile Augmented reality. In other words, the conjunction of a small com- 1992, when the term “augmented reality” is coined. 15 according to the position of the screen; but the display Reality Systems) system. During their first year of puter (powerful microprocessor, considerable amount In this case, augmented reality was applied to the as- cannot go beyond the boundaries of the cable length work, they were able to create a functional proto- of memory), touch screen, GPS and movement sen- sistance of workers in a highly complex task as the nor function without the physical transportation of type: “The Touring Machine.” 16 This prototype was sors (accelerometers), video camera and Internet con- manual assembly of thousands of cables during the the device which supports the illusion. This shows used to watch information on different points in the nection (Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G) in the hands of an increasing manufacturing of commercial airplanes. that despite this work pioneering in the deployment campus of the University of Columbia while a subject number of people. Allowing for the visualization of of this technology, there are still far more possibilities toured around within the perimeter. The equipment aesthetic searches through the use of mobile aug- when we think of the use of current mobile electronic consisted of a backpack with a notebook which apart mented reality. This is comparable to the massification devices; especially in delivering software through the from having a graphic card for 3D images process- of the Internet in the middle of the 1990s and the first Internet which can run on this type of devices, what- ing, included GPS data, a handheld PC connected by a experiences of Net.art exploring a space without strict ever their geographical location might be, since it is wireless modem to the University network and a see- surveillance and legal regulations. not necessary to physically carry a particular artifact through head-worn display which allowed the view of to visualize it. reality with overlaying digital information. One of the turning points in the creation of contents from fixed augmented reality towards mobile devices, Nowadays, thanks to the massification of smart- as well as a development that might be placed both phones and tablets, augmented reality systems can be in the engineering and aesthetic fields, isThe Invisible deployed without the aid of special hardware, making Train (2004) by Daniel Wagner, Thomas Pintaric and it possible to move freely through space nearly any- Dieter Schmalstieg. Image 5. The Golden Calf, 1994, Jeffrey Shaw. Ars Electronica, where in the world. Linz, Austria. © Jeffrey Shaw. All rights reserved. Their project consists of an application for personal This new phase of augmented reality technology digital assistants (PDA) which alows multiple users to In the art field, one of the first projects that used which incorporates mobility and massification seems control a virtual train running along a real prototype augmented reality technology was The Golden Calf to open a new field for content creation; we will ad- with a railway pattern. Users have to prevent trains (1994) by Jeffrey Shaw, creating the virtual model of dress in particular those contents related to aesthetic from colliding by adjusting the speed of each virtual a “golden calf.” This calf could only be seen through virtual production in terms of a specific site. convoy. a screen overlaying the virtual model over a real-time view of the built-in camera; this created the illusion Image 6. First prototype of the MARS (Mobile Augmented that the virtual object was lying on a platform, de- Reality System) system. 1997, © Steven Feiner, Blair MacIntyre, pending on the movements of the screen you could Tobias Hollerer, and Anthony Webster, Columbia University. All watch it from several points of view. This situation rights reserved.

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series of aesthetic creations using these technologies. interest in terms of consideration over its own condi- teriality and dimensions of the created objects. We This might be considered as a new aesthetic field that tion – the Shades of Absence by Tamiko Thiel. This are also faced with the possibility to transcend the we will call “location-based virtual interventions.” work presents yellow silhouettes and virtual typogra- three-dimensions of any material physical object, its phy with words alluding to censorship; by clicking on location and dimensions; an example of this is Sander This type of technologies is necessarily related to the the screen, we access a list of artists’ names whose Veenhof’s work 1px (2011) which consists of the mini- traditional artistic use of space, from sculpture and artworks at public spaces have been censored. mum possible expression of augmented reality data; architecture to land-art and installations. They present, another one is Biggar (2010) where the artist shows however, two distinguishing fundamental elements: the biggest interactive virtual sculpture in the world: 7 the objects created are virtual and, thus, are not af- billion objects placed around the Earth. Image 7. The Invisible Train, 2004, Daniel Wagner, Thomas fected by gravity; it is also possible to place them any- Pintaric and Dieter Schmalstieg. Courtesy of Vienna University where in the world, whether a private or public space, Objects might be three-dimensional, ecstatic, or of Technology. with or without permission. mobile, and there might be images, sounds, videos or texts. Although they can be modified according to Proposing the use of an augmented reality system The most interesting works in the field of mobile aug- other settings or sensors, they will build an augment- within a standard mobile device marks the beginning mented reality are precisely those which leverage the ed space which allows to perceive the real space in a of a growing tendency which would continue during following two features: location of the virtual object different way, and to re-conceptualize digital virtual the following years through the fusion of so-called establishing tension with the real space, and/or limit creations. Whether through the transgression of plac- PDAs and mobile phones into smartphones with the transgression of real materials by means of virtual im- ing an artwork at some place without permission, or hardware needed to implement those systems. As materiality. That is transcending space in two senses: the construction of shapes which would be impossible these devices became more popular, new platforms on the one hand, real space where materials are not Image 9. Shades of Absence: Public Voids, 2011, Tamiko Thiel, to achieve in the real world, the way we connect to were introduced, like Wikitude (2008) or Layar able to act in a particular way; on the other hand, con- Augmented Reality, Video still © Tamiko Thiel. the aesthetic contents of mobile augmented reality (2009), which were used to create augmented reality trol, territorial and property space. depends on an alternative use of mobile electronic contents for various operating systems. For instance, Public spaces; art exhibition spaces; legitimation, pow- devices, space and experiences in proposed paths. In a work created with Layar can now be accessed from er, and controlled spaces. Public, private, guest, ex- this way, political, ideological and philosophical read- Android, iOS, Blackberry and Symbian. Compatibility cluded and censored artworks – these elements which ings are created through location-based virtual inter- generated by these platforms simplifies programming for centuries have been present in the art world, start ventions. through content creation, as well as reaching a greater intersecting. From rupestrian paintings placed in poor- number of users. Therefore, since around 2010, any ly accessible places to current urban graffiti, through user with an intermediate knowledge of programming religious images in churches or the Latin-American VI. VIRTUAL INTERVENTIONS FROM ARGENTINA (especially PHP and SQL) is able to use those platforms mural paintings, what differentiates them all is that to create his/her own content which can later be visu- these referents address those elements through pure From these experiences in the U.S. and Europe, we alized by a considerable audience. materiality. There is a painting, a sculpture or an object might argue that placing content without permission in a real space. In the 1990s, those same elements implies a critical questioning of surveillance spaces Moreover, these massive delivery possibilities exist Image 8. We are in MoMA, 2010, Sander Veenhof and Mark were challenged through net.art virtuality, but nowa- in the mechanisms of contemporary art legitimation. thanks to the ubiquitous nature of current mobile de- Skwarek. Image courtesy of Sander Veerhof. days there is a new range of possibilities regarding the But at the same time, these centers of power are vices in terms of permanent wireless Internet services. connection of the immateriality of virtual objects with ratified when choosing the sites to intervene. For in Devices are permanently connected either through The group of artists Manifest.AR has created art works physical-real spaces. We could argue that if Internet these cases, the artwork can only be experienced by the cellular network or local access points, so it is pos- which constantly address spatial aspects of control, cyberspace is as controlled as the physical-real space, those who are able to travel to cities like New York or sible to access mobile augmented reality systems and power and art legitimation. For example, in We are then the conjunction of the Internet and the material Venice, to name a few examples. visualize their content overlaying the environment. in MoMA (2010) Sander Veenhof and Mark Skwarek space creates a yet unregulated new hybrid world; used the Layar platform to infiltrate a series of virtual this, in turn, allows certain practices which violate the objects in the space assigned to the building of the laws and controls of the two spaces where the hybrid V. VIRTUAL INTERVENTIONS FOR MOBILE DEVICES Museum of Modern Art in New York. This same group space is supported. also launched at the Venice Biennal 2011 a series of Processing capacity of mobile electronic devices, virtual pavilions with various works at the central, and Considering that one of the most interesting points standardization of their operating systems, and the therefore, the most sought-after spot, the “Giardini” in virtual interventions is the possibility of using space development of online software platforms for simpli- at Piazza San Marco. Among the set of virtual works without surveillance “inside” a particular location, fied augmented reality content creation gave rise to a included at the Biennal, one in particular is of special there is another aspect to explore in terms of imma-

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Image 10. Untitled (site-specific ubicuity), 2011, Alejandro Schianchi, virtual intervention, Creative Commons Image 11. Video Dérive, 2011, Alejandro Schianchi, Virtual intervention, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. In Galerias Pacífico (Buenos Aires, Argentina) with the virtual content and the CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. Watching one of the located videos in the same street that backgound of a mural made by latin-americans painters. was recorded.

On the basis of this situation and my location in ries of different relationships from those established Video playback and the decision to walk along with VII. VIRTUAL INTERVENTION IN THE ARGENTINEAN Buenos Aires, Argentina, I thought it should be some- by a local intervention; this is deepened when there the movements displayed develop diverse relation- PAMPA PLAINS how possible to go deep inside the political aspect of are economic, political and social distances between ships between the user’s context and the content location-based virtual interventions. This is the origin both territories. In addition, the intention is to multiply watched from the mobile device screen. Differences The transgressions of space, relative to physical and of my work Untitled (site-specific ubiquity) 2011)( the locations of the object as the artwork is presented and coincidences in space, time, elements and move- control limits through mobile augmented reality, which consisting of an abstract, three-dimensional, open- at different events, as was recently the case in Paço ments are created in a kind of spatial, audiovisual hy- are mentioned in this paper can be articulated with source generated object which can be downloaded das Artes (San Pablo) during the Arte.Mov festival; it pertext which is explored as the user tours around the the project I am currently developing. and modified. This work is placed in different spaces could also be presented at a different site without the streets of Buenos Aires. Users can even make a call in the world, such as galleries, museums and cultural author’s control through appropriation of the code. to my personal mobile phone. Formats, roles and con- This work consists of the virtual placement of a large- centers in Buenos Aires, as well as legitimate sites nections are intertwined between the author and the sized horizontal plane of 650 km long and 10 km wide abroad, the Pompidou Centre (Paris), the Guggenheim Another location-based virtual intervention at Buenos user, between fiction and documentary. We talk about over a territory of the Argentinean Pampas which was Museum (New York), and ZKM (Karlsruhe). In this way, Aires is Video Dérive (2011) which shows a series fiction because in several of the clips that make up the chosen for being particularly plain. a citizen from Buenos Aires can experience exactly of video clips placed in different points of the city’s work, the user always watches and follows the same the same artwork as a Parisian – since the model is downtown. These videos – recorded indoors and character. Ultimately, this is a way of exploring urban This virtual plane transcends physical boundaries in the same – , but each one will observe it from his/her outdoors, close to and far from those points – can be space without a definite target, accessing the various two senses, on the one hand for having two dimen- own local environment. Legitimation arising from plac- played as the user walks along the city. video clips depending on the chosen journey. sions (no depth), and on the other hand, for being ing an artwork at international power spaces, without parallel to the ground without being in contact with it, permission and at no relocation costs whatsoever, is nor subject to, the land, for example without experi- somehow re-conceptualized through access to the encing the impact of gravity. same work and at the same time in the rest of the world. The issue of performing an intervention in a In this case, the questioning of the territory is related given territory from abroad inevitably results in a se- to the fact of trespassing thousands of private plots of

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land without permission. It promotes reflection upon the history of the land where the work is placed and its relationship with the use of wire fences.

Image 13. Virtual intervention project by Alejandro Schianchi in the argentinian pampa region, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. Photomontage based on the image of Maximiliano Alba CC-BY-SA. Terrain view.

CONCLUSION acknowledgements Image 12. Virtual intervention project by Alejandro Schianchi in the Argentinian pampa region, Creative Commons CC-BY As for Lucio Fontana, the virtual plane may be seen as Mobile technologies allow for reflection upon the This article is dedicated to the friendship and memory of Alejandro Schianchi. Map view. an incision into a section of space, although contrary spaces revised in terms of artistic practices, creating Norberto Griffa. His spirit still inspires me. I must also ac- to his notorious vertical slashes of the canvas, with a new point of contact between the virtual cartogra- knowledge Dr. Laurence Bender for his valuable suggestions, a horizontal cut. Immateriality of work could be re- phies of telecommunications and data networks, and Professor Jorge Zuzulich for his interest in this subject, Dr. flected in the premise of his “Television Manifesto of of a nomad body moving with augmented mobility Pablo Jacovkis for his comments and Mariana Pierantoni for The first wire fences introduced in the country to iden- Spatial Movement” (1952) to create art which is “dis- through ubiquitous mediatisations. her collaboration. tify the limits of the plots and, therefore, of private connected from the material;” through Jean-François property were used in this region of extensive plains, Lyotard, 18 Paul Virilio, 19 and Peter Weibel 20 it will A new territorialisation for visualizing immaterial data where references are hard to find.Gauchos who then be tightly connected to the subsequent tradition in real space is produced, as well as a connection moved freely through these lands in the beginnings of electronic art. between cyberspace and physical mobility, between of the 19th century started to find restrictions which global access and local experience. would become increasingly widespread. In the case of Marcel Duchamp, while staying in Buenos Aires for nearly a year, he produced a stereo- Based on the above-mentioned examples, it is possi- The virtual plane connects to this history by tran- scopic piece, placing the segments of two opposing ble to see that this as a new, expanding aesthetic field scending the plots of land divided and allocated to pyramids over the horizon of the Río de la Plata. His and, therefore, lacks previous academic references. It landholders. By use of location-based virtual interven- work Stéréoscopie à la main (1918) represents the is seen, however, as an important point for debate and tion, it is possible to create a conceptual and aesthetic conjunction of an abstract geometrical shape and a of interest to the current electronic art field. connection between real space and virtual space. This real space, which evidently called the French artist’s is portrayed in an artwork which cuts across rural and attention. The flat horizon is characteristic of Buenos We have, then, reflected upon a new aesthetic field urban spaces into the Río de la Plata. Aires perimeter; the plains extend into the provinces through space transgressions performed by location- of La Pampa and Santa Fe in the Northwest, and into based virtual interventions which will probably multi- The work also seeks to restore part of the rioplatense the East following the Río de la Plata river, setting up a ply along with the massification of mobile electronic artistic tradition: from Lucio Fontana’s spatial concept very particular landscape which has served as inspira- devices and data connection systems ubiquity. ■ to Marcel Duchamp’s production (reference) during tion to great part of the local art history and through his stay in Buenos Aires. which this location-based virtual intervention tries to establish a dialogue.

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References and Notes

1. Lev Manovich, “The poetics of augmented space,” Lev 12. Oliver Grau, Virtual Art: from illusion to immersion (Cam- Manovich personal site, 2005, http://manovich.net/DOCS/ bridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004). ALEJANDRO SCHIANCHI validated by those ‘sources’ might be considered as a Augmented_2005.doc (accessed August 27, 2012). 13. Ivan Sutherland, “A Head-Mounted Three Dimensional more powerful and hegemonic action from the out- 2. P. Milgram, H. Takemura, A. Utsumi, and F. Kishino, “Aug- Display,” in Proceedings of Fall Joint Computer Conference interviewed by side to the inside of art world. This is why I find virtual mented Reality: A class of displays on the reality-virtuality (1968): 757–764. interventions so interesting, as they can be performed Lanfranco Aceti & Richard Rinehart continuum,” in Telemanipulator and Telepresence Tech- 14. Ivan Sutherland, “The Ultimate Display,” in Proceedings of remotely and at low cost from the ‘outside’ to the nologies in SPIE 2351 (1995): 282–292. the 1965 IFIP Congress, no. 2 (1965): 506–508. ‘inside.’ 3. Plato, The Republic, trans. Desmond Lee (London: Penguin 15. Thomas P. Caudell, and David W. Mizell, “Augmented Is there an ‘outside’ of the Art World from which Books, 2003). Reality: An Application of Heads-Up Display Technology to to launch critiques and interventions? If so, what I feel that saying this seems to go against an idea 4. Antonin Aratud, The Theater and Its Double, trans. Mary Manual Manufacturing Processes,” in Proceedings of 1992 is the border that defines outside from inside? If it which is precisely promoted by these ‘sources of le- Caroline Richards (New York: Grove Press, 1994). IEEE Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sci- is not possible to define a border, then what con- gitimation,’ and which is mentioned in your question, 5. Steve Bryson, “Virtual reality in scientific visualization,” in ences (1992): 659–669. stitutes an intervention and is it possible to be and about the so-called democratization of the art world Communications of the ACM 39, no. 5 (1996): 62–71. 16. S. Feiner, B. MacIntyre, T. Höllerer, and A. Webster, “A act as an outsider of the art world? Or are there – a much more horizontal positions-taking that art 6. Wayne Carlson, “A Critical History of Computer Graphics touring machine: Prototyping 3D mobile augmented reality only different positions within the Art World and institutions adopt neither without being clearly out- and Animation,” (2003) Section 17: Virtual Reality, http:// systems for exploring the urban environment,” in Proceed- a series of positions to take that fulfill ideological side nor inside ‘something.’ This reminds me of what design.osu.edu/carlson/history/lesson17.html (accessed ings of IEEE ISWC ‘97 (International Symposium on Wear- parameters and promotional marketing and brand- André Lemos says in connection with a supposedly August 27, 2012). able Computers), (Cambridge, MA, October 13–14, 1997): ing techniques to access the fine art world from an equal access to the Internet in his claim that “Those 7. T. Mazuryk and M. Gervautz, “Virtual Reality: History, Ap- 74–81. oppositional, and at times confrontational, stand- who can move more easily through cyberspace are plications, Technology and Future,” (1996), http://www. 17. Markus Kähäri, David J. Murphy, “MARA – Sensor Based point? also those which are more autonomous to physically cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/publications/1996/mazuryk- Augmented Reality System for Mobile Imaging Device,” in The ‘outside’ concept of the art world is always pres- move, and vice versa.” We might add that those who 1996-VRH/TR-186-2-96-06Paper.pdf (accessed August Proceedings of the 5th Annual IEEE and ACM International ent when you create artwork in a country like Argen- can move more easily both through cyberspace and 27, 2012). Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (2006): tina, especially since our cultural tradition has been the physical world are certainly closer to the ‘inside’ of 8. Jonathan Cohen, “History of Virtual Reality,” (2000), 180–180. based on the observation of what is going on in the the art world. http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cohen/VW2000/Lectures/His- 18. Jean-François Lyotard, Les Immatériaux : Album et inven- European and American ‘sources of legitimation.’ I tory.color.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012). taire (Paris: Centre G. Pompidou, 1985). think it is in this respect that you might draw a border “In The Truth in Painting, Derrida describes the 9. Samuel Ebersole, “A Brief History of Virtual Reality and 19. Paul Virilio, The Over Exposed City (New York: Urzone, that defines ‘outside’ from ‘inside.’ Some institutions, parergon (par-, around; ergon, the work), the its Social Applications,” (1997) University of Southern 1986). museums and galleries set trends and legitimate cer- boundaries or limits of a work of art. Philosophers Colorado, http://faculty.colostate-pueblo.edu/samuel. 20. Peter Weibel, “La era de la ausencia,” in Arte en la era tain artists and artwork because others, in turn, vali- from Plato to Hegel, Kant, Husserl, and Heidegger ebersole/336/eim/papers/vrhist.html (accessed August electrónica. Perspectivas de una nueva estética, ed. Clau- date those spaces of legitimation, and in such a way debated the limits of the intrinsic and extrinsic, the 27, 2012). dia Gianetti, 101–121 (Barcelona: L’Angelot, 1997). the border is defined. This happens in my country and inside and outside of the art object.” (Anne Fried- 10. Jeffrey Shaw, “Modalities of Interactivity and Virtuality,” in in many others, where you are much more renowned berg, The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, eds. Randall for an exhibition in the MoMA or the Tate than for the (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009), 13.) Where then Packer and Ken Jordan, 132–137 (New York: W. W. Norton artwork you might display at a museum in Buenos is the inside and outside of the virtual artwork? Is & Company, 2002). Aires or South Africa. This is related to the several the artist’s ‘hand’ still inside the artistic process in 11. Myron Krueger, “Videoplace,” Media Art Net, 2005, http:// contributions of Lyotard’s theory on postmodernism the production of virtual art or has it become an www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/videoplace/ (accessed to the process of knowing how contemporary legiti- irrelevant concept abandoned outside the creative August 27, 2012). macy works. process of virtual artworks? In my case, the production of virtual art has always From this (conceptual and geographical) point of been connected to the possibilities raised by its imma- view, I believe that an intervention which has not been teriality from the perspective of conceptual art tradi-

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tion. When an artwork is based on automatic process- The ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’ limits of virtual produc- resignifying buildings or landscapes through interven- ing his stay in Buenos Aires. This is an optical experi- es, or processes which require little intervention from tions are hard to place because, as Dubois claims, they tions. I also think that graffiti art, through exemplary ment where we can see an abstract geometric figure the artist, his/her ‘hand’ is largely displaced. For me build their own reality. However, we may imagine a Bansky, has much to do with the attitude of virtual over the Río de la Plata river, combining the real world this is personal research into certain features of virtual border where the real world should support informa- interventions, especially in those productions where and a ‘virtual’ three-dimensional world. devices, but this may not necessarily be the case of all tion for the virtual world to exist. Hard disks, solid- the image is directly linked to the located space as virtual artworks. I think that in many other works, the state memories, capacitors, and punched cards – the his series performed in the wall that divides Israel and In the representation and presentation of your artist’s hand is directly present in the gestures car- material support for simulation might be considered Palestine. From a theoretical point of view, I think Guy artworks as being ‘outside of’ and ‘extrinsic to’ con- ried into the virtual world, but also in a more indirect as the ‘outside,’ whereas the result of that virtual Debord is the most important reference, followed temporary aesthetics why is it important that your way by virtue of what we may call style. Whether you simulation might be considered as the ‘inside.’ In my by Rosalind Krauss with her concept of “Sculpture projects are identified as art? see it in the writing code decisions – in software-like work Untitled (2009), where I rebuild Kosuth’s One in the Expanded field,” Nicolas Bourriaud with his I don’t think it is important that my projects should works such as Contagious Paranoia (2001) by Eva and Three Chairs into a virtual multi-user world (Sec- “Relational Aesthetics,” and some concepts provided be considered art. I am interested by the tension itself and Franco Mattes or my experimental open-source ond Life), I play with the traditional border of artwork, by Gilles Deleuze, such as “deterritorialization” and between a virtual object not necessarily considered an audiovisual Untitled (2010) – where the artist consid- since it is a virtual space where the virtual artwork is “reterritorialization”and his description of computer- artwork and some space which validates artistic pro- ers variable names and aesthetics within the code supported by another virtual system. ized societies in Postscript on the Societies of Control. ductions. This is a sort of resignification of the ‘ready- structure that supports and is attached to the artwork; made’ which inevitably goes beyond the art world or in the aesthetic decisions regarding color, shape, The interesting thing is that virtual interventions with Regarding my particular style in virtual interventions, and is rather connected with surveillance, monitoring, size and movement of the virtual work that has been augmented reality allow us to include the real world, I find inspiration in many minimalist and conceptual ownership, consumption, mass technology, commu- created, making use of a broader sense of the artist’s which makes virtual illusion possible. This invalidates artists: Richard Serra, Sol Lewitt, Donal Judd, Tony nication and mobility issues. In this sense, We are in hand inside the artistic process. the difference described above and presents a hybrid Smith, Robert Morris, Walter de Maria, Félix González- MoMA (2010) by the collective Manifest.AR provides world (real/virtual) where it is more difficult to set the Torres. I also include traditional Latin-American mural us with an interesting example for reflecting upon the Ultimately, there are always a number of decisions border between ‘inside’ and ‘outside.’ paintings which depict social issues and exhibit to the opportunities to challenge certain power spaces and to be made by the artist, which will account for his/ general public, outside elitist artistic exhibition venues. art legitimation that arise from virtual interventions. her ‘hand’ in the process. I am therefore outraged at Virtual interventions appear to be the contempo- Some artists are David Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, José In my case, through my work Untitled (site-specific the indiscriminate use of random functions in digital rary inheritance of Fluxus’ artistic practices. Artists Orozco, Antonio Berni, Leonardo Spilimbergo and ubiquity) (2011) I intended not only to place a virtual artwork, where the artist’s decision is eventually re- like Peter Weibel, Yayoi Kusama and Valie Export Juan Carlos Castagnino. This is why I took interest production in a legitimation space, but also to link duced to the milliseconds of the execution system subverted traditional concepts of space and media in the virtual intervention through my work Untitled it to some of the issues I mentioned before; first, by and there is no accountability for the decision on his/ through artistic interventions. What are the sourc- (site-specific ubicuity) (2011) of the dome at the generating the virtual three-dimensional volume only her part. This is what has led me to explore error as es of inspiration and who are the artistic predeces- Galerías Pacífico shopping mall, where we can find a through the code, and making it accessible to the an aesthetic possibility in audiovisual devices, since I sors that you draw from for the conceptual and mural painted by many of those artists. Some other public who are able to download it and modify it; and understand that, under those circumstances, there is a aesthetic frameworks of contemporary augmented Argentinean artists that have inspired me in terms second, by placing the same object in different places, much more evident displacement of the artist’s hand reality interventions? of the intervention of galleries, museums and public retrieving simple copy and reproduction possibilities and decisions in favor of those of the device which is The Fluxus movement is an obviously important his- spaces are Marta Minujín, David Lamelas, Alberto opened up by digital devices. At the same time, it al- not responding as expected. torical referent for creative output that connects art Greco, Nicolás García Uriburu and Horacio Zabala. lows more people to access the experience of person- and life, as well as the traditional exhibition venues In theoretical terms, the Manifesto spaziale per la ally seeing the object through their own mobile device, In short, I think that if there is indeed some sort of which are altered or extended into everyday public televizione (1952) by Lucio Fontana is a forerunner in without the need to be at a New York museum. I think displacement of the artists’ hand, this is not as much spaces. I would also mention other names like El immaterial artistic creation. this point reveals that Walter Benjamin’s aura and due to the very nature of the device, but rather to Lissitzky, Gordon Matta Clark, Jenny Holzer and Jef- reproducibility concepts are still valid and current, es- the fact, as explained by Vilém Flusser, that they have frey Shaw for both his works Golden Calf (1994) For my latest virtual intervention, based in the Pampa pecially in regards to the political and social dimension become functionaries of the hardware/software used and Inverter la terre (1986), and Land Art made by plains, I found a connection with Marcel Duchamp’s in terms of massive access to an artwork. This is what for their production. Robert Smithson, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude for Stereoscopie a la main (1918), a work performed dur- has led me to think of virtual interventions not merely

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in the large international centers, like the Guggenheim where in the world from a developing country, even and Centre Pompidou, but also in galleries, museums inside the most important centers of art legitimation and public spaces in Buenos Aires. at a level of abstract spaces of power and control.

On one hand I think that the conceptual and aesthetic For my second work Video Dérive (2011), I wanted to implications of ‘extrinsic to’ something are ampli- experiment with video clips, so I started shooting in fied when an intervention is performed outside the the surroundings of the place where I live, mainly for borders of the artist’s country of residence. Related technical reasons such as defining the speed of con- to this, I am also attracted by this new field of virtual nection, codec compression, etc. I found that carefully interventions which can be produced abroad, but is watching the territory where I move every day was experienced at a local level. critical to the process – searching for situations, images, spaces and sounds which might be connected On the other hand, when you are inside the art world to one another. Finally, an artwork which consists of a series of thoughts are developed which are specific short-length video clips located in different points in to the art world. What I mean is that, if in order to the city of Buenos Aires turns out to be some kind do some critical thinking of the world, it has to be of multimedia hypertext in the real space, where de- considered as art, then I think it’s valid trying to have it pending on the viewer’s circulation and interaction, regarded as such or as a means of delivering pleasure different relations are developed between the content or, at least, of moving away from the advertising com- of the videos and their playback time and space. This mercial or tourist interests suggested by most of the experience, which forced me to see the relationship mobile augmented reality applications. So the work of between space and audiovisual content, also helped art is related not as much to the romantic spirit of art me to reconnect with everyday local places, from my as to a cultural strategy to stimulate critical thinking. perspective as I had to choose what to record, and from the viewers’ perspective as they walk along the What has most surprised you about your recent streets watching a video which relates to the ‘here artworks? What has occurred in your work that was and now.’ All this has resulted in the latest production outside of your intent, yet has since become an in- I am working on where I locate a virtual horizontal trinsic part of the work? plane extending more than 600 km over the Argentin- Going back to watching the landscape, the place ean Pampa plains. Reflecting on the history of private where I live and its surroundings, and noticing the property limits in this area, when gauchos who moved differences between these places and some others far freely over the land started to come across barbed away. Going back to the ‘here and now’ awareness in wire fences which marked the perimeter of the lands. the aesthetic experience, without dismissing the pos- ■ sibilities provided by digital and virtual productions.

The presence of all this was not so clear in my first work with mobile augmented reality, and it started to emerge in my second work. The first work,Untitled (site-specific ubiquity)(2011), focused on the opportu- nity of placing a virtual three-dimensional object any-

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Untitled, 2002, Alejandro Schianchi, 16 mm., Creative Commons CC-BY Maximiliano Schianchi. Fade from black to white in ten minutes.

ALEJANDRO SCHIANCHI statement & artwork

My artworks frequently portray some tension between their aesthetic and technological aspects; there is usually an electric, electronic, digital device or mechanism which sustains an illusion.

This illusion intends to exert some effect on the viewer’s senses and, particularly, some thinking process.

Stressing the limits and possibilities of each device, I look for virtual or real images, sounds and objects which come to a crisis with their condition; representation and virtuality issues, errors in apparatus, are all traversed by a resignification of concepts.

Due to my technical background in computer elec- tronics and my aesthetic background in cinematogra- phy, I have always had a great interest in developing worlds and combining it with the real world, which has Untitled, 2006, Alejandro Schianchi, video object. Copyright and linking both fields. I originally put this idea into Untitled, 2001, Alejandro Schianchi, digital video, Creative led me to carry out research on the field of mobile Gianni Mestichelli. An image of the argentinian dictator Videla action through videos, nourished by the migration Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. Digitized Lumiere augmented reality. is erased through time. from celluloid to digital format in cinema in the late brother’s film. 1990s, and through the massification of computers Given the conceptual nature of my production, to- and the Internet. gether with my academic activity, I understand that theoretical production is as important as the execu- A couple of years later, I started producing objects and tion of artwork, in virtue of an intellectual process installations because I felt the need to explore spatial worthy of causing aesthetic, technological, social and situations which were otherwise limited in plain imag- philosophical concerns which will be connected to and es. In the last years I start working on multi-user virtual reinforced by art production. ■

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Untitled, 2009, Alejandro Schianchi, performance on line, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Untitled, 2010, Alejandro Schianchi, video and code, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. Virtual version of Kosuth’s “One and three virtual chairs.” Schianchi. The video is generated only by an open-source code.

Untitled, 2009, Alejandro Schianchi, installation, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. Installation version with a photo of the Kosuth work, a video projection, and a mirror. Untitled (diminished reality), 2010, Alejandro Schianchi, installation. Copyright Marcelo Santorelli.

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Untitled (site-specific ubicuity),2011, Alejandro Schianchi. Virtual intervention, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. In Galerias Pacífico (Buenos Aires, Argentina) with the virtual content and the background of a mural made by latin-americans painters.

Untitled (site-specific ubicuity),2011, Alejandro Schianchi. Virtual intervention, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. A street in Buenos Aires with the virtual content near a cultural center in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Video Dérive, 2011, Alejandro Schianchi, Virtual intervention. Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. Watching one of the located videos in a diferent location.

Untitled (site-specific ubicuity),2011, Alejandro Schianchi. Virtual intervention, Creative Commons CC-BY Alejandro Schianchi. The virtual object located in the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photomontage based on the image of Matt Olson CC-BY-SA.

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