Augmented reality app reveals Seattle protest art in surprising places
Aimed at sustaining the Black Lives Matter movement, the new citywide art show is part of the Seattle Design Festival.
It’s part of a new, citywide augmented reality art show called Amp’Up Seattle. By downloading a free app with the same name, anyone can access eight virtual artworks that appear layered over the existing cityscape — like Pokémon Gofor art.
They’re not alone. Businesses, museums and news mediaare finding ways to physically or digitally preserve the street art that sprouted from the BLM movement as well.
In the Central District, app users will discover three-dimensional graffiti-style lettering that floats above the intersection of 23rd and Union and implores onlookers to say the names of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. When scanning the Seattle skyline at Kerry Park or the José Rizal bridge, a cloud of pixelated rain drops appears to hover over the skyline, as if the city is weeping. And at Westlake Park, the app frames a digital “Right to Remain Heard” poster by local artist Kreau within the plaza’s 24-foot proscenium arch.
Yes, Kadoo admits, it requires, like so much else these days, a screen. “But you're not sitting on a couch. It exists in a real site and context. You have to go to a real place to see it,” she says. “It bridges the gap between virtual and physical.”
She hopes people will use the app and artworks as an opportunity to “revisit the focus of the BLM movement,” she adds. “Keep that heat and conversation going.”
See the full story here: https://crosscut.com/culture/2020/08/augmented-reality-app-reveals-seattle-protest-art-surprising-places