Exchange (AR) with designCore, Institute of Technology, Carlow

To accompany the Post Electric season, undergraduate Product Design Innovation students from the Institute of Technology, Carlow were asked to create a bridge between VISUAL and the community using Augmented Reality (AR). Artist Joanna Hopkins gave the students an introduction to working with AR, and Blippar UK, one of the leading companies worldwide in the use of AR technology, came on board as a sponsor and gave the students online tutorials and unlimited access to their software platforms, in order to build their augmented reality experiences.

The students focused on community by researching with people on the street, online, in the library, with arts organisations, local authorities, and the original Éigse (Carlow Arts Festival) Committee. Their research found that Carlow has a long history of community involvement in the arts, including the creation of VISUAL itself. Inspired by their findings they issued an open call to the community to submit art works and received 45 submissions from Carlow people in all walks of life. 21 artists from different countries were also invited to submit work by the students. The students were facilitated by lecturers Rosalind Murray and Colin Deevy. Explaining the final structure of the work, the students commented:

"Art ripples through the people to enrich our shared communal expeirence, bringing benefits which radiate beyond geographic boundaries. In this exhibition each artwork plays an equally valuable part in the flow of the wave-like design. Art belonging to the Carlow community emerges from the walls of VISUAL. The use of augmented reality gives us something more. This brings life to our intent."

Participating Students:

Robert Crowe, Michael Curtis, Adrian Dore, Melanie Doyle, Jordan Ilowski, Daniel Maxwell, Quan Quan, Dillon Reid, Bela Rezmuves, Anthony Behan, Gearoid Buckley, Brian Gorman, Billy House, Daniel Lawler, Sarah McDermott, Xiang Wang, Hongmeng Du.