Center on Contemporary Art’s Pop-Up (AR)t, produced in May of 2016 on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, was the first time future WORKSHOP 3D Partners Ray C. Freeman III, Jeff Mihalyo, and j. Shagam (fluffy) worked together on an Augmented Reality project.

The project, originally conceived of as a book, but eventually expanded to include a gallery exhibition, was organized by Ray, and Jeff and fluffy were participating artists, juried into the project by David Francis and Joseph Roberts. Jeff and fluffy were also among the minority of artists who provided their own 3D models. Most of the other models in the show were created by Ray from concepts and/or instructions from the artists.

When the exhibition was presented and the book published, it was supported by a free Augmented Reality app from Wikitude. Instructions for downloading and using this app with the CoCA content were provided at the show and in the book. Unfortunately, the ability to continue to use this app with the book has since expired.

For the second Augmented Reality show, created by the recently formed WORKSHOP 3D, LLC, Ray, Jeff, and fluffy produced our own free app, ARt portal, so that we wouldn’t have to rely on a third party app that might once again expire on us. Besides, it was a good test of some of our ideas about multi-functioning apps that could support expandable content. ARt portal was released in December, 2017, and supported “Beyond the Picture Plane” at Shoreline City Hall. It has since gone on to support a second show in Shoreline, “Augmented Nature”, “Room With a View” at the Magnuson Park Gallery, a permanent installation by F.E.W. Research at the Broadcast Apartments in Seattle, and the 2018 Lusio Festival in Seattle’s Volunteer Park.

While a few of the pieces from CoCA’s original project have always been included in ARt portal (three pieces by Mihalyo, Miguel Edwards, Alan Fulle), we are now pleased to support the entire show, as it currently exists in book form. All 18 original pieces, plus Steven Rock’s cover, and three additional supplemental pieces from “CoCA p(AR)k” in 2015 are all there. Not only that, but many are improved with better lighting, updated materials, and better rendering.

Reworking the support for an existing book has given us the opportunity to solve a few legacy issues that we had not previously overcome. Megan Geckler’s Endless Tower” and Bradley Tsalyuk’s “Oort Cloud” had always been uard to view, based on difficult targets. They required that the book be perfectly flat, and that lighting be very good and extra even, with no trace of glare or shadow. Even then, there was difficulty getting them to appear. In the case of “Endless Tower”, it helped to get back from the book a bit, as shown in the photograph above from the original exhibition. With “Oort Cloud”, you had to stand on one leg while playing “Pop Goes the Weasel” on a nose flute.

Fortunately, with some additional strategizing and fine tuning, both of these artworks are now easily seen in ARt portal.

Since the book is available print-on-demand, future copies of the book will include instructions on downloading and using WORKSHOP 3D’s ARt portal app rather than the original Wikitude app.

We are pleased to be able to give this gift to our friends at CoCA, who were, after all, helpful in bringing our team together through the original Pop-Up (AR)t project and other CoCA events.

ARt portal is a free app available for iOS and Android devices. For more information see our AR portal page. Some minor app updates, including notched screen support and a few bug fixes are included in this release as well. If you already have ARt portal, be sure to upgrade to version 2.0.1 or higher. For more information on using ARt portal to support your exhibition, feel free to contact us.

CoCA’s Augmented Reality book, Pop-Up (AR)t is available from lulu.com. In addition, the project is available as a deck of playing cards at thegamecrafter.com.