Helen PapagiannisFebruary 06, 2022NFT, AR, Art, crypto art, Augmented Reality, nature, architecture, mobile, adobe

Billelis

Helen PapagiannisFebruary 06, 2022NFT, AR, Art, crypto art, Augmented Reality, nature, architecture, mobile, adobe

Extra Human Reality, Remixing Billelis

Billelis is an incredible 3D Illustrator & Digital Artist based in Edinburgh known for his memento mori motifs. “Extra Human Reality” is my Augmented Reality (AR) submission to Billelis’s latest competition inviting artists to remix his work.

For this piece, I chose to explore themes of duality: permanence and ephemerality, strength and fragility, history and future, reality and virtuality, 3D and 2D, opaque and transparent, and nature and technology.

In “Extrahuman Reality” nature prevails. The technology parameters on the floral elements are set to grow to infinity in AR, overtaking both the virtual skull and physical environment the artwork is placed in. The photos and videos presented here are small slices in time, documented across multiple shoots during a harsh Canadian Winter at temperatures of -22 celsius.

The AR in this artwork is simultaneously alive and a ghost. It is alive in its shape-shifting real-time interactions across the landscape, yet a ghost because it was never really there, a temporary dream viewable only through the camera lens.

The artwork takes days to shoot; for me the unique placement of the AR igniting a conversation with reality is equally as important as the 3D model, animation, images, sound, etc. I have to meet the AR artwork in reality first, understand its nuances, and see how it wants to behave in the world. (And later, when the time comes for the AR to find it’s home with a collector, its legacy continues with that collector as a collaborator as well.)

“Extra Human Reality” was inspired by a deep reverence for nature. I half joke that my metaverse reading list is currently all nature books, but this is true. If we don’t know the world we live in intimately first, how can we expect to create anything new? I’ve been savouring readings by Tristan Gooley, Mary Oliver, and David Abram lately, which aliven my senses to the beauty of our animate Earth. I hope you enjoy this piece.

UPDATE: This AR artwork is now available on Async! It’s a living piece that updates 4x throughout 24 hours to reflect sunrise, day, sunset, and night. The winning collector will also receive a link to the AR experience. Bid now.