Does immersive virtual reality, augmented reality, and interactivity require new aesthetic criteria and/or pedagogical models?

How does technology affect perceived boundaries between disciplines, maker/consumer, author/reader, artist/viewer, or public/private?

What are the ethical and aesthetic dimensions in communication technologies?

The year is 2045, and my classroom of middle schoolers are gathered around me, and putting on their pairs of google Education glasses. We received a grant to allow our program to offer this tool to students who are not able to purchase these glasses at home. However, some of my students are from the northern part of the county, vastly wealthier than the southern part. They roll their eyes as I demonstrate how to toggle between colors and brushes, how once I make a mark, I’m able to walk around it and through it. They have been using art materials like these AR (augmented reality) brushes and the google home glasses since they could hold a controller, and this is nothing new to them. My other students can hardly believe we have these tools, and make small doodles in the air and walk around and through them, laughing and creating tic-tac-toe boards, and lines and loops to navigate in and around. Even having time to play and exploring with these tools is going to take some time – it’s not the same as creating with the confines of a canvas or sheet of paper.

When we meet again the following week, many of my students are excited about the videos they watched at home about contemporary artists that are creating immersive worlds in public spaces using AR brushes and tools like the ones we use. “It’s like graffiti!” one student shouts. “You mean it’s street art.” Another student elbows the first gently. “We saw that old street art in our art history class at school.” We discuss how these artists are able to move their creation anywhere, and how it changes in context to the space it is in. “Does it mean something different on a city street as it does in a field, or under the ocean?” The art is able to be scaled almost any size, and rotated in space.

We look at one artist who has made their artwork available to the public, and has asked people to place it in different places around the world, capture a 3D video of the art installation, and upload it to their website. We visit the website and see how their art looks different in different places, and try to decide where we can install it around our school, in their neighborhoods, and on their travels. We decide we should first install it in our art room, and really explore the work. Students walk through it, and look at it from every possible angle. They play and show each other different things they have found.

We discuss how it is changed by people in the space. “Is it okay that people are walking through the installation without realizing it?” “What if people travel to a specific place to interact with the art installation?” “Is it okay to install this art anywhere?” “Is there anywhere this art should not be installed?” “Whose artwork is it, if we are all moving and changing it?” “Is it okay to remix this file and upload it to the same site?” There is no one right answer, but many energetic conversations, and agreements to disagree.

Once we have installed the artist’s work, we begin to create our own designs in the weeks to follow. Some students collaborate, and are sharing their files with friends they have met while gaming online. Our students’ works are installed all over the world, and their friends are eager to capture the installations for us. We are able to move through the installations in Moscow, and in a French suburb, in a market in Ecuador, and an alley in Japan.

One student has an aunt who works for SpaceX, who is able to install her niece’s creation small scale on her palm, while she sits in the newest International Space Station. We laugh as she chats with our class in a video chat, and she holds up the design. Other students send their files as well, and she toggles through the designs, her palm transforming into a gallery.

We map where all of our installations are, and are able to see how wide spread they have become, and are excited to see if they will continue to spread.

I am excited about the opportunities that are available to us with this grant, and the use of the AR brushes and google Education glasses. I also wonder how my two students with severe visual impairments will navigate the installation art exploration. Will people be able to develop something with tactile representation fine enough for them to perceive? How is our world changing to become more reliant on visual stimulation, and how does this affect those who are unable to engage with that sense?

Will my students from the southern part of the county ever be able to catch up with the technology experience of students with more household income? With the rate at which technology is changing, I have my doubts.

 

Keifer-Boyd, K., Knochel, A. D., Patton, R. M., & Sweeny, R. W. (2018). Posthumanist movement art pedagogy: Geolocative awareness and co-figurative agency with mobile learning. Studies in Art Education, 59(1), 22-38.

MAUA | Milan – Museum of Augmented Urban Art. (2018, April 10). Retrieved January 21, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJnxShb175U