In September 2014, the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission launched Broadway Augmented, an augmented-reality virtual public art project supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Located in Sacramento’s Broadway district, it represented an innovative blend of new media art, augmented reality, mobile technology, and public art. Eleven artists from across the United States created seventeen virtual installations over fifteen city blocks.
The custom app was built by Geoffrey Alan Rhodes using the Unity game engine and Vuforia augmented-reality platform. Viewers downloaded the free app and, using maps and street decals, took a self-guided walking tour lasting approximately one and a half hours. By pointing a mobile device’s camera at designated street features, viewers could interact with the virtual artworks in real time. Walking around the works allowed them to experience their dimensionality and relationship to the location.
Broadway Augmented brought experimental new-media practice into the public-art realm, creating an accessible interactive experience through mobile technology. The project only existed when people engaged with the works while walking along the street. Each person chose a route and captured a unique set of screenshots, sharing experiences with other visitors and through social media.
Augmented reality can facilitate an emotive and flexible form of public art that is deployed, distributed, experienced, and documented through mobile devices.
