Tuesday, October 05, 2021
AR exhibition opens at botanical gardens including Eden Project
blooloop: The Eden Project has opened an augmented reality (AR) exhibition called ‘Seeing the Invisible’, which is appearing at 12 botanical gardens across six countries.
Seeing the Invisible features contemporary artworks created with AR by 13 international artists, including Ai Weiwei, Refik Anadol, El Anatsui, Mohammed Kazem, Sigalit Landau and Sarah Meyohas.
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The idea of using AR art to augment botanical gardens is interesting to me. In general, there is the idea that the world of electronics and the world of nature stays separate. Botanical gardens, and experiences with nature in general, are often used as a way to take a break and regenerate from screens. This exhibit challenges that. To view the art, you are forced to look through an electronic device, through a tablet or phone. I am not sure where I stand on this. At first, I didn't like the integration of devices with nature. I thought it took away from the already limited opportunities to fully detach from electronics. But then, it got me thinking. Why is art and nature so separate? Why is it so hard to find spaces without phones and just nature? Why are we so attached to our phones? Even if not the intention, the piece got me thinking a lot about the relationship between what is natural and what is created by humans.
Personally, I don’t think I would like this exhibit if I saw it in person. I love botanical gardens and see no need to introduce technology and man made art into a space dedicated to connection with nature. However, the piece in the article about the COVID-19 pandemic and the way art and nature have become so important, it made me think that perhaps I am not the target audience for this installation, and helped me wrap my head around a lot of the pros of this medium. It allows artists with no budget or support to make large scale pieces still experiment with big forms in outdoor spaces. It allows smaller gardens to incorporate sculpture without a huge time and monetary commitment. It allows immunocompromised people who are not yet comfortable indoors to experience new art outside of a gallery or theater. As an exhibit, I still believe it isn’t fantastic art by my standards, but my standards are not the lens this is meant to be viewed through.
This article explained how artists are incorporating AR into botanical gardens which is so interesting to me because I never really thought something so technologically driven could be combined with something so much simpler, nature. This concept applies to the theatre industry because we are increasingly seeing productions incorporate technology into pieces which opens a whole new world for designers, giving them new and intriguing mediums to work with. The article mentions how in the pandemic, people spent more time outside getting in touch with nature (often on the same sidewalk they took a walk on every day). The point made is that this exhibition allows you to change your typical perspective on the nature that surrounds you which I find so interesting because during the pandemic we were all stuck in nature that became very familiar to us. This project allows someone who is maybe familiar with a certain garden to find a new perspective and step outside of routine to see how two very different mediums work together to create a new and interesting landscape.
Eden’s Seeing the Invisible exhibition is taking place in all together 12 botanical gardens, in 6 countries, as an international project with 13 world renowned artists participating in an experiment of digital art. The AR gives a chance to artists to put out their work in the beautiful botanical gardens but digitally, meaning you can only access the pieces of art through an App on your smartphone. I think that this is a great way to get artists involved in new ways of art exhibiting, however, can technology enhance a naturistic experience, or does it disrupt the concept of being immersed in nature? I think that the name of the exhibition evokes imagination and that the whole experience is valuable for being a global exposition for the 13 artists participating, challenging the conventional way of looking at art. I see the AR experience is an exciting way to look at art and a perfect example of art evolving and changing with the times. I find it interesting to see technology and nature work together in harmony, calling attention to various ways of art exhibiting and giving the exhibitions more complexity. I admire Eden’s initiative for an innovative way of showing contemporary art.
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