We AR in MoMA

We AR in MoMA!!!!
join us

Sander Veenhof & Mark Skwarek

Developments in the field of phychogeography advance rapidly and radically. In former times the discipline required mental capabilities such as concentration and imagination, nowadays mobile phones provide us with easy-to-use viewing tools to percieve a multitude of fictive realities, anywhere we are, instantly. The technique causing this 'progression' is called augmented reality. It has led to an armada of virtual creativity of various kinds into our public physical space. Actually, AR has rewritten the scope of 'public space'. Physically walled private spaces, such as musea, are now open areas for anyone's objects and actions. To reflect on this and to investigate the implications for art intitutes, Mark Skwarek and I propose to infiltrate the MoMA with an augmented reality exhibition, curated and transmitted from a distance using GPS-driven Layer AR technology. A helpdesk will assist Conflux participants to collaborate and contribute a work to this "virtual DIY museum".

furtherfield review for "Spill >> Forward" show

furtherfield review for "Spill >> Forward" show -- full review here

"If I had to pick out just a few pieces from the show I'd say that I was struck by the sounds of Luke Munn's Deepwater Suite, by the visuals of Ubermorgen's DEEPHORIZON, by the monochrome images and text of Terri Garland's photography, by the video mash-up of Colette Broeders' Breathe and by the critical camp of Graham Bell's Radical Ecology. I think my favourite is Mark Skwarek and Joseph Hocking's "The Leak in Your Home Town", an iPhone app that uses the BP logo as an Augmented Reality marker to super-impose a 3D animation of the Deepwater leak over live video of your local BP petrol station. It is art that could only be made now, technologically, aesthetically and socially.

The aesthetic and conceptual competence of the artistic responses to the environmental and human crises of the oil spills in Spill >> Forward make the case for art still being a relevant and capable answer to society's need to make sense of unfolding events. Art can still provide a much-needed space for reflection, and Spill >> Forward creates just such a space in a very contemporary way."

Leak presented at the Motion Graphics Festival at Columbia College

Joseph Hocking presented our work at Columbia College's Ferguson Center
as part of the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival 2010 this September.

The leak in your home town showing at Spill » Forward

The leak in your home town showing at Spill » Forward show. Responding to what has been called the United States’ worst ever environmental crisis, the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico frames this forward-looking group exhibition. Following on the heels of a decidedly unsuccessful round of climate negotiations in Copenhagen, the months of news coverage of oil gushing into the Gulf have provoked widespread unease with business as usual. As BP desperately attempts to recover both the oil and its public image, artists and designers from around the world are wrestling with the question of sustainability in the aftermath of these shocking events.

Flavor Pill's Flavorwire sites the Leak in Your Home Town

Flavor Pill's Flavorwire sites the Leak in Your Home in the"Artwork That Uses Augmented Reality" article.

Time Out Chicago has Joe's Upgrade! lecture in "This week's picks "

Time Out Chicago -- Art & Design -- Edited by Lauren Weinberg
This week's picks
Upgrade! Chicago
This art and technology lecture series continues with Joseph Hocking's presentation on the leak in your home town, which he's developing with Mark Skwarek. The augmented reality project is an iPhone app, which lets users see the Deepwater Horizon oil spill whenever they see a BP logo. Nightingale, Tue 14 at 7pm.

see Joseph Hocking @ chicago upgrade! presenting our work-
Sept Tue 14 at 7pm. I wish I could be there but have a full week of classes --
Directions

The Creators Project “Augmented Reality Augmenting The Art World”

Augmented Reality Augmenting The Art World -- by Julia Kaganskiy
The ability to superimpose additional information on a physical object is one of the most exciting aspects of AR, and one that is utilized to convey a poignant political message by artists Skwarek and Hocking. Although the BP oil scandal has died down considerably since the oil flow in the Gulf has been (finally) put to a stop, it was arguably the largest national disaster we’ve witnessed since Katrina. Still, both the government and the public seemed relatively unphased by the travesty, likely because it didn’t seem to affect them directly. Hocking and Skwarek’s iPhone app art piece hopes to eliminate that sense of distance by confronting the viewer with the realities of that gaping oil hole under the sea every time they see a BP logo, turning the logo into a tube hemorrhaging barrels of oil. The app is an interesting demonstration of how AR can be used to overcome the limitations of the physical world and make seemingly distant objects or information feel more immediate and relevant.

Mark Skwarek and Sander Veenhof showing at CONFLUX 2010!

Sander Veenhof and I will be collaborating on augmented reality projects which will be showing at CONFLUX 2010. I will be building from an AR piece which was originally Sander Veenhof's idea. I saw his idea [which I really liked] and decided to add a new 3d layer on top of his original project. Sander and I began to communicate and we decided to work collaboratively while maintaining 2 separate projects. I see this collaboration as a beginning to the virtual "layering" of the physical world, somewhat like coats of paint on top of one another. More info soon!

Hyper Allergic Review

Full article here -- Hyper Allergic Review

"One of the most awe-inspiring pieces in the show is Mark Skwarek & Joseph Hocking’s timely “the leak in your home town” (2010). Considered a “logo hack,” the artists have created an iPhone app (not available on iTunes or online yet) that allows users to hold up their iPhone cameras to the BP logo on the floor of the gallery, which is then transformed into a digitalized crude oil spill. It’s a fascinating technological trick and a type of corporate hacking that artists are only starting to experiment with. After my fascination subsided, I felt a sense of concern as I imagined how companies will eventually find ways to hook into the cool factor of these innovations and warp it into yet another means of advertising (think Foursquare)." -- Article by Hrag Vartanian

Tunneling Closing Party & After Party

Tunneling Closing Party & After Party
Today · 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Location Famous Accountants and then an after party/housewarming at the curator Will Pappenheimer's renovated building at 698 Hart St., Brooklyn, 9pm onwards.

If you are in town Saturday, September 4, 6pm onwards please join us for the closing celebration "Tunneling" exhibition closing @ Famous Accountants and then an after party/housewarming at the curator Will Pappenheimer's renovated building at 698 Hart St., Brooklyn, 9pm onwards.

Art Review mentions Joe and Mark

Joseph Hocking and Mark Skwarek were mentioned in the review ""Tunneling" Curated by William Pappenheimer at FAMOUS ACCOUNTANTS" by James Kalm in Art Review.

Leak got on "James Kalm Report"

Leak got on "James Kalm Report" -- and it looks like I'm om the intro shot.