Augmented Reality at CU-Boulder, February 25 & 26, 2017
Augmented Reality & Critical Engagement: A Lecture & Workshop by Amir Baradaran
Lecture: Thursday, Feb. 25th at 6pm (Reception, 5pm). British Studies Room, Norlin Library, M549
Workshop: Friday, Feb. 26th, 9am–2pm. Lunch provided. Aspen Room 285. UMC.
About the Artist: Amir Baradaran (b. 1977) is a New York based Iranian-Canadian performance and new media artist. His work with augmented reality explores how participatory experiences and new-media can instigate speculations about the racialized self, sexualized body, radical subjectivities, technology and infiltration. Baradaran is the recipient of the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality first place prize, the prestigious Canada Council of the Arts’ Visual Arts Grant, and UC Berkeley’s Artist Residency (from Center for New Media, Critical Theory & Race and Gender). Baradaran was most recently commissioned by Morgan Stanley for the opening ceremony of Pulse Art Fair during Art Basel Miami Beach. His AR installations have been performed around the world in countries such as Sweden, Turkey, Canada, and France. You can learn more about his work at http://www.amirbaradaran.com/index.php.
Thursday Evening Lecture: Augmented Potentialities: Re-{AR}ticulating Participatory Art Making and Critical Engagement
In this talk, Baradaran will discuss his current artistic praxis involving Augmented Reality {AR} technology. AR, as a form of new media, offers a live view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory (virtual) input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. Under the theoretical framework of FutARism, Baradaran suggests that AR presupposes significant conceptual shifts, as it expands our definitions of ownership and trespassing while triggering dialog about a new medium for interactive installations. Of Baradaran’s several AR installations, this talk will highlight Frenchising Mona Lisa, which raises questions about curatorial control of what is seen/experienced in a museum. The alternative (augmented) experience of Baradaran’s Mona Lisa interferes with da Vinci’s original work and injects itself into the Louvre’s presentation of the painting. The talk will spark interdisciplinary discussions about how participatory performance and new media art practices can produce critical speculations around the digitalization of bodies, racialization/sexualisation of virtualities, and future curatorial practices.
Date, Time, and Location: Friday, Feb. 26th, 9am–2pm. Lunch provided. Aspen Room 285. UMC.
Friday Workshop:
This 5-hour workshop provides hands-on introduction to Augmented Reality (AR) – a form of new media that augments a live view of a material environment with computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. AR is an emerging tool that offers many exciting possibilities for writers, visual artists, community organizers. This workshop is designed for individuals who are familiar with basic mobile technology but have never worked with augmented reality. Individuals who want to use and/or teach AR as a critical media practice will especially find this workshop useful.
Workshop Instructors:
Amir Baradaran (b. 1977) is a New York based Iranian-Canadian performance and new media artist. His work with augmented reality explores how participatory experiences and new-media can instigate speculations about the racialized self, sexualized body, radical subjectivities, technology and infiltration. Baradaran is the recipient of the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality first place prize, the prestigious Canada Council of the Arts’ Visual Arts Grant, and UC Berkeley’s Artist Residency (from Center for New Media, Critical Theory & Race and Gender). Baradaran was most recently commissioned by Morgan Stanley for the opening ceremony of Pulse Art Fair during Art Basel Miami Beach. His AR installations have been performed around the world in countries such as Sweden, Turkey, Canada, and France. You can learn more about his work at http://www.amirbaradaran.com/index.php.
John Tinnell (PhD, University of Florida) is an assistant professor of English at CU-Denver and a faculty fellow of the Creative Research Collaborative. Specializing in rhetoric and media theory, he writes about digital technologies and creative practices that integrate with the built environment to affect urban culture. He is co-editor of the forthcoming collection Augmented Reality: Innovative Perspectives across Art, Industry, and the Humanities. He has incorporated augmented reality into his undergraduate curricula and written extensively about augmented reality in Enculturation, Convergence, and Computational Culture, as well as his current book project, Actionable Media: Digital Rhetoric beyond the Desktop.
Workshop Facilitator:
Laurie Gries (PhD, Syracuse University) is an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Program for Writing & Rhetoric and the Department of Communication at CU-Boulder. Her research is invested in visual rhetoric, circulation studies, research methodologies, and the digital humanities. She is author of Still Life with Rhetoric: A New Materialist Approach for Visual Rhetorics (winner of CCCC 2016 Advancement of Knowledge Award) and editor of Enculturation: A journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture. She has developed digital research methods to trace how images circulate, transform, and contribute to collective life and is currently developing a digital software prototype and data visualization techniques to support such research.
Workshop Schedule:
9am - 9:20: Coffee and Participant Introductions
9:20am - 10am: Introduction to AR and its value as critical media practice, pedagogical tool, and scholarly focus
10am - NOON: Instructional Activity and Group Collaboration
12pm - 12:45: Lunch Break. Lunch will be provided.
12:45 - 2pm: Sharing Projects and Discussing Future Potentials
By the end of the workshop you will be able to
• Define AR and imagine the artistic, critical, and pedagogical implications of this emergent technology
• Create simple but meaningful 2D and 3D augmented reality objects
• Know more about the AR platforms such as Aurasma
• Test, view and document your work on location using iPhone or Android mobile devices.
Participation Requirements: Participants must provide their own Wi-Fi enabled laptop, and bring a late model smartphone (iPhone or Android mobile device).
To enroll in this workshop, please click Registration tab in right top hand corner. To ask questions, please email Laurie Gries at legries.colorado.edu.
All event spaces are wheelchair accessible. If workshop participants have any special needs, please identify in the registration form or email legries@colorado.edu at least two business days in advance of the workshop.
This event is hosted by the W.R.I.T.E. Lab and the Program for Writing and Rhetoric at CU-Boulder. All events are open and free to the public. Advance Registration Required for Workshop Only. To ask questions, email legries@colorado.edu. To enroll in the AR workshop, please click on the Registration tab on the right hand top of the screen.