Compete for a Spot in the Stedelijk Museum’s Virtual Exhibition!

// April 12th, 2010 // View Comments // b-wired

This is your opportunity to shine!

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, which is undergoing major restoration at the moment, has teamed up with MediaLab and a group of students working for MediaLAB, Your Own Reality (YOR), to present an exhibition based on augmented reality. YOR has found a way to make art tangible because they can’t hang anything during the restoration. The museum is calling on art students and artists to submit digital works of art. Ultimately, 15 of the submissions will be selected for a virtual 3-D exhibition to be displayed on the Museumplein in Amsterdam. How do you compete and submit your work?  See answers to the questions below!

What does “augmented reality” mean?

Augmented reality combines the “real world” with computer generated data. You can digitally enrich the real through location-based services. Say, for instance, you need to find the nearest bus stop from your exact location. The iPhone can now display a live and interactive map finding the location of the nearest bus stops, and pointing you towards them!  To be able to tour this exhibition, you will have to go to the Museumplein and use your iPhone to see the 3-D works displayed!

How do I create my virtual augmented artwork?

If you have an iPhone or Android smartphone, you’re all set. Just download the application “Layar” to your phone, and start creating something amazing! More specific guidelines are outlined on the website.

Can I use a different application to create work?

You can use another application, but YOR must be able to realise the art into the augmented reality application “Layar”.

Who will select the works? What are they looking for?

The curators at the Stedelijk Museum will be choosing the final 15 works that will be shown in an actual exhibition. They are looking for motivation, interest and understanding in the concept and creativity! What the YOR students want is for artists to think about how augmented reality can be a new medium for art.

When is the final submission date? When is the exhibition?

The last day to submit a design is 24 April, 2010, and the submission date for final concepts is 10 May 2010. The exhibition will take place sometime in mid-May, the specific date still yet to be confirmed.

This exhibition is different, its neat, and it’s embracing a technology that is only just being introduced. Don’t you want to say you were in an exhibition with the Stedelijk Museum? Hope all the artists at b-uncut  (who have the technology, of course!) will enter  into the contest! For more information, click here!

Times Square to Art Square

// January 13th, 2010 // View Comments // b-wired

No more Calvin Klein Underwear. Goodbye to Obsession. The iconic Times Square billboards are about to be bought up by emerging artists.  Why has no one thought of this before? The concept is the brain child of Justus Bruns, and it’s brilliant.

Here’s how it works:

an artist posts their work on this website, fans and admirers can donate money for minutes towards their favorite artists, the artist gets  time on the Times Square billboard. Is there any better advertising space in the world?

AND they’re using social media and crowdsourcing to get it done—I think we are a match made in heaven. As they wrote in their blog, “If every artist starts to promote the idea within his or her network, we’ll get an enormous group of people. And that means power, money, and quite possibly the realization of Justus’ idea. We’re going to show the world what the buzzword ‘crowdsourcing’ really stands for.”  They need artists to show, and anyone can upload a work to the website to take part. Not everyone is guaranteed a place, but what great exposure!

b-wired: Art for Advert? Yes, Please!

// December 14th, 2009 // View Comments // b-wired

The Internet has become a breeding ground for commercial promotion–it has revolutionized marketing schemes, and become downright annoying. No longer can you open up your browser and actually see the page you were trying to get to.

Instead you are bombarded with pop-up windows, flashing seizure-inducing images, and the worst–musical advertisements. Some are less annoying and invasive than others–like the announcements that appear in the margins of facebook or newspaper publications. But the hope is that these advertisements will seep into your subconcious and compel you to use so-and so’s product.

What if I told you there was a way to REPLACE these adverts with ART? That’s right–you can!

The wonderful people behind “Add Art” have made this possible–for free. It is a Firefox add on and will replace advertising on websites with curated art images, one artist per page. What  a brilliant way to turn a pesky problem into something aesthetically pleasing. Add blockers have become popular in recent years, but this puts an interesting spin on the concept by turning your browser into an art gallery! Art lovers everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief.

b-wired:iPhone-art-on-the-go by David Hockney

// November 2nd, 2009 // View Comments // b-wired

Digital photography and photo-manipulation (aka photo-shopping) are now bona fide Twenty-First Century art genres. But what would you say if we told you that you can now create artwork with your iPhone? Better still, the artist who’s pioneered the iPhone-art-on-the-go genre, is 72 year-old critically acclaimed artist David Hockney! Don’t you wish he was your grandpa?

David Hockney uses a nifty little app called ‘Brushes’ to create his works, a natural media painting application that features an advanced colour picker, several realistic brushes, multiple layers, extreme zooming, and a simple yet deep interface. The Bradford born artist sees the iPhone as offering a new challenge, creating work on a small canvas that requires you to think about composition, texture and colour. It also offers the possibility to share artwork, work in progress and ideas instantaneously with anyone in the world. He actually has two i-phones full of works. Pretty cool, huh?

So yes, there is quite literally an iPhone app for everything, which is fantastic news for those amongst us who have inherited two left hands (and nope we’re not talking about our artists here!)

There’s also a pretty cool list of other iPhone apps for artists on Be your art

If you’re using any of these apps, why not email your creations over – go on, you know you want to!