I am pleased to present the works of student-artists from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Film, Video, New Media, Animation Department. This exhibition is a showcase of augmented reality and experimental 3D artworks created out of the Virtual Installation course at SAIC this Spring 2021 semester.

Augmented Reality enables users to exist in the same space as the 3D objects or Avatars they create. This shared space is not fully digital, not fully physical, but is in between, and both simultaneously. This course is a proposal that Augmented Reality acts as a portal that opens a window onto a virtual world that always exists, but one which we need technology to access.

Some questions that have guided us through this semester are as follows.

How can we use Augmented Reality to expand our perception? How can we transform tools designed for corporate use into radical art making methodologies? How can we use 3D software to have control over and the ability to customize our online identities? What does it mean to exist in the same space as 3D objects and Avatars?

This course is focused on the processes behind and the implications of working in augmented reality. Each student has created a work of art using augmented reality and varying levels of mixed reality, all hosted on the web VR platform of Mozilla Hubs.

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-Anneli Goeller, 3D artist and Faculty at SAIC