Apple just announced a global series of free AR-based art exhibitions

by Jonny Evans · July 30, 2019

Apple has announced a series of Augmented Reality (AR) art exhibitions by leading contemporary artists which it will be hosting across its global chain ofApple retail stores.

Let Apple take you for an [AR]T Walk

The exhibitions are curated in partnership with the New Museum and registration is required to attend.

Apple invited the New Museum to select seven artists to take part in the project: Nick Cave, Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg, Cao Fei, John Giorno, Carsten Höller and Pipilotti Rist.

What’s going on?

The three new sessions include an interactive walk featuring works by some of the world’s premier contemporary artists, an in-store session that teaches the basics of creating AR using Swift Playgrounds and an AR art installation viewable in every Apple Store worldwide.

The experiential walks take participants through San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo as they encounter works by world-renowned artists, most of whom are working in AR for the first time.

Works by Cave, Djurberg and Berg, Cao, Giorno, Höller and Rist connect participants to public spaces such as London’s Trafalgar Square, San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens or New York’s Grand Army Plaza in Central Park.

What is Apple saying?

“Today at Apple offers a window into the creative arts made possible by our products and customers,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People.

“We hope attendees are inspired by the incredible AR creations in the [AR]T Walk and in-store installation, and we can’t wait to see what our visitors learn to create in the [AR]T Lab.”

What is the New Museum saying?

Lisa Phillips, Toby Devan Lewis director for the New Museum commented:

“The New Museum has always led at the intersection of art and tech and we could not have asked for a better partner in Apple to support the surreal and fantastic visions of these pioneering artists. Augmented reality is a medium ripe for dynamic and visual storytelling that can extend an artist’s practice beyond the studio or the gallery and into the urban fabric.”

Is it art, or ARt?

The artists have used AR to find new ways to make their artistic points. Rist’s “International Liquid Finger Prayer” uses movement and music to get its message across, while “Through” by Höller takes viewers through a portal into a “world with no perspective,” Apple said.

Nick Cave

[AR]T Lab: AR Experiences

Created in partnership with New York artist, NEW INC member (New Museum’s cultural incubator) and educator Sarah Rothberg, this free Today at Apple session at all Apple Stores gets attendees hands-on with whimsical objects and immersive sounds created by Rothberg.

Using Swift Playgrounds, anyone can learn how to create their own AR experiences in this free 90-minute [AR]T Lab.

[AR]T in the Apple Store: Nick Cave’s “Amass”

Visitors can come into any Apple Store worldwide and experience artist Nick Cave’s AR piece “Amass.”

Using the [AR]T Viewer in the Apple Store app, users can initiate Cave’s interactive installation, which takes the viewer on a journey to view and collect “Ikon Elements” and experience a universe of positive energy right in the middle of an Apple Store.