AR:U:REAL

A school project with the Max Planck Gymnasium

A group of young people can be seen standing in front of a screen. The screen shows a live image of the group, which is recorded by a camera above the screen.
Duration
2019–2020

»AR:U:REAL« invited the 10th grade students of the Max Planck Gymnasium to take an exploratory approach to the current ZKM Collection exhibition over the course of a school year. In a creative exchange of ideas, they investigated (media) art historical developments, questioned these critically and tested artistic strategies. In a further step, they developed an exhibition walk using Augmented Reality (AR). For this, they linked the works with their own artistic executions in real and virtual space.

Developments that are now a natural part of our media society have already been taken up and thematised artistically in the middle of the 20th century. The exhibition »Writing the History of the Future – The ZKM Collection« traces the media transformation of the 20th century. This also includes works that deal with augmented reality – the computer-aided extension of reality. Haptically real and digital experience merge into one another. Objects in an AR environment are close enough to touch – and at the same time not. Whether in education, in technical or medical professions or in the entertainment industry – AR finds many fields of application today and has become part of our communicative and aesthetic practice. Dealing with AR thus starts with the media world of the students.

In the first half of the project with the 11 students of the Max Planck Gymnasium, the focus was on familiarizing them with the exhibition. Various interactive actions before and with selected works were used to highlight the different thematic areas of the exhibition. Reactions of the students were formulated with different artistic strategies using photography, 3D pens, moving image experiments and lyrical texts.

During this phase it became clear that the project would have to overcome many hurdles. At first, the AR app that was chosen for the project was no longer available because the manufacturer had discontinued the app. In the spring after half of the project, the lockdown came due to the Corona pandemic, which made a personal meeting with the group impossible. And in the course of spring came the news that the exhibition would be closed for the time being over summer and fall in order to make it Corona-compliant, i.e. making the walk visible to the public would be delayed until further notice.

Nevertheless, the project was successfully completed. The meetings were held via video conference during the lockdown and continued to be planned, discussed and pedagogically supported in the development of the individual stations of the walk. The interactive design of the project was maintained with various online tools and it was also possible to work in groups on individual stations via video conference. Finally, the reactions of the students were uploaded via the app »Artivive« and fed into the AR for the works in the collection exhibition. Markers, i.e. images of the works, were deposited for this purpose. In addition, a neon yellow sticker was created, which shows the way to the individual stations in the exhibition. A display at the entrance to the exhibition with a deposited AR now shows all visitors how to call up the walk. Videos were compiled with their own intellectual continuations of the works, visual alienations and extensions, descriptions of the works and comments.

With the help of digital AR technology, the project aims to add a participatory level to the exhibition. The students curated and presented their very personal approach to the artworks and themes in virtual space – and yet very close to the exhibits of the collection. They became visitors, artists and mediators at the same time. They developed strategies by means of AR. The result was an AR walk that opens up new perspectives on the collection exhibition for visitors to the ZKM and implements the traces of the debate in a lasting way in the exhibition.

Open Gallery
  • A group of young people can be seen standing in front of a screen. The screen shows a live image of the group, which is recorded by a camera above the screen.
    At the beginning of the project the pupils get to know the exhibition and its works.
  • Young people sit in front of two large projection screens on which a picture and the line "a black smoke coming from the ceiling" can be seen.
    In cooperation with lyrix, the national competition for poetry, the students approach the works on a textual level.
  • Two boys walk with closed eyes through the exhibition »Writing the History of the Future«.
    With their eyes closed, the pupils explore the soundscape of the exhibition.
  • You can see a corner of a room. A ball has been painted into the virtual space with colored pencils.
    Various AR applications serve the students as a first approach in virtual space.
  • A girl is standing in front of a picture with her cell phone in her hand. She holds her cell phone as if she was filming the picture.
    The work »Lungs: Slave Labour« has been supplemented by an artistic approach that touches you.
  • You can see three girls who have put their feet on a text on the floor and take a photo of it.
    Yellow markers on the ground show the way to the stations of the AR-Walk.
  • A woman kneeling in front of a screen can be seen. In her hand she is holding an iPad, which she has pointed at the screen. Coloured pixel structures can be seen on the screen.
    When scanning the text of the work of »Game of Life«, a video appears which explains the work in more detail.
  • Someone is holding the camera of an iPad on a wall. On the iPad you can see a green meadow.
    Also »Alle Macht den Amateuren« was supplemented by an AR-supported commentary by a student.
  • A woman stands behind a sofa, in front of a picture. The picture shows an optical illusion of black and white lines that simulate movement to the eye.
    With the work »Radio Painting Station« the work changes in a surprising way.
  • Three women stand in front of a picture showing a curry sausage in a cardboard bowl. One of the women holds an iPad on the picture.
    At the end of the project the different stations of the AR-Walk will be viewed by a test audience
  • A group of young people sit on a picnic blanket outside and listen to a woman talking to them.
    At the end of the project, a big thank you goes out to the pupils for having worked on the project until the end despite all the resistance.

Overview
  • A group of young people can be seen standing in front of a screen. The screen shows a live image of the group, which is recorded by a camera above the screen.
    At the beginning of the project the pupils get to know the exhibition and its works.
  • Young people sit in front of two large projection screens on which a picture and the line "a black smoke coming from the ceiling" can be seen.
    In cooperation with lyrix, the national competition for poetry, the students approach the works on a textual level.
  • Two boys walk with closed eyes through the exhibition »Writing the History of the Future«.
    With their eyes closed, the pupils explore the soundscape of the exhibition.
  • You can see a corner of a room. A ball has been painted into the virtual space with colored pencils.
    Various AR applications serve the students as a first approach in virtual space.
  • A girl is standing in front of a picture with her cell phone in her hand. She holds her cell phone as if she was filming the picture.
    The work »Lungs: Slave Labour« has been supplemented by an artistic approach that touches you.
  • You can see three girls who have put their feet on a text on the floor and take a photo of it.
    Yellow markers on the ground show the way to the stations of the AR-Walk.
  • A woman kneeling in front of a screen can be seen. In her hand she is holding an iPad, which she has pointed at the screen. Coloured pixel structures can be seen on the screen.
    When scanning the text of the work of »Game of Life«, a video appears which explains the work in more detail.
  • Someone is holding the camera of an iPad on a wall. On the iPad you can see a green meadow.
    Also »Alle Macht den Amateuren« was supplemented by an AR-supported commentary by a student.
  • A woman stands behind a sofa, in front of a picture. The picture shows an optical illusion of black and white lines that simulate movement to the eye.
    With the work »Radio Painting Station« the work changes in a surprising way.
  • Three women stand in front of a picture showing a curry sausage in a cardboard bowl. One of the women holds an iPad on the picture.
    At the end of the project the different stations of the AR-Walk will be viewed by a test audience
  • A group of young people sit on a picnic blanket outside and listen to a woman talking to them.
    At the end of the project, a big thank you goes out to the pupils for having worked on the project until the end despite all the resistance.
Credits
Sponsors

Funded by the support of »School and Culture« of the Cultural Office of the City of Karlsruhe.

Funded by

Key topics

Key topics