Olivia Seecof
Contributing Writer
The ManifestAR @ ZERO1 exhibit was simultaneously on display in the Samek Art Gallery at the University and in Silicon Valley in California from September 10-21. The exhibit combined artistic vision and mobile technology to produce works of art that are only able to be viewed through the use of a smart phone or device. This is one of the first times the Samek Art Gallery worked with another gallery across the country to run parallel exhibits.
An app called AR, which stands for Augmented Reality, allows you to scan a code and choose a subject such as a Chinese takeout container with the words “human organ” on it, a monopoly man or even a cloud. The user can then hold his or her phone up around the gallery and see the form he or she chose in the surrounding objects around the gallery. The Samek Art Gallery ran a slide show of videos and pictures of the app, showing that art is not only still, but moving.
“The smart phone exhibit was really awesome because it combined real time viewing on a personal piece of technology with a cross country flair to it,” said Jackie Carpenter ’13.
The Samek’s counterparts in California did similar things in their art gallery. They took their smart phones and traveled to places like the Google and Yahoo! headquarters and used skywriting with green clouds floating overhead. The Samek Art Gallery combined these videos and photos into a presentation located at the back of the Conversations Gallery.
“I loved the variety of people that [the exhibit] brought into the gallery, especially students that maybe wouldn’t ordinarily visit,” said Laura Hildebrandt, a graduate assistant in the Samek Art Gallery.
Kappa Alpha Theta fraternity held an event in the SAMEK Gallery on Family Weekend.
“The slide show was interesting and stimulating. It allowed conversations to begin among the sisters of Theta and their parents,” Chapter President Christine Ku ’13 said.
The exhibit presented art in a format that people are more familiar with by breaking down traditional boundaries of location and medium of art.
“Once you came in and saw the exhibit here, it really opened your eyes to the possibility of seeing art everywhere. The app can be used anywhere, and it just goes to show that art doesn’t have to be set or structured. It’s really what you imagine it to be,” Carpenter said.
“I think it was an innovative show that was able to impact many people through its accessible, personal format,” Hildebrandt said.