Bring Art to a New Dimension with AR
Scottish artist Gordon Brown from Urban Punkz brings a new dimension to wall art in the home. Combining original works of art with augmented reality, Gordon has evolved his work into an interactive multimedia experience. The artwork has a very distinctive style, and like most art, it is framed and viewed on the wall as a decorative feature. However, when the work is scanned with a smartphone and the Artivive App, the wall art comes to life using augmented reality.
1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your work?
I am a Scottish-based artist based in Prestwick, that graduated from Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. I have worked in the creative industry for over 25 years, from luxury Treehouse design to graphic and website design. Art has always been in my blood though. Over the years I have developed an aesthetic style, moving away from traditional oil painting techniques to fusing mixed media, digital media, mark-making, and spray paint. I started my website Urban Punkz in 2019, to feature my new series of work.
2. Why Urban Punkz?
Urban Punkz is urban, urban, urban. It’s like a hybrid between street art and graffiti. It’s also a play on words as Urban Punkz describes the Urban Art that I create. Also, I don’t know if you have ever tried to find a good domain name these days, but it’s not easy with the name Gordon Brown.
3. What was your first experience with art?
My first experience with art was when I was in primary school. I was a bit disruptive and couldn’t concentrate on all the subjects, but as soon as I started to draw, I would be focused for hours. Later on, I had a wonderful teacher who would take us on field trips to galleries. She took us to the degree graduation show at Glasgow School of Art, and I thought this is what I want to do.
4. What inspires you when creating your work?
I have always focused my work on people, mainly female figurative. My work has no real political message and only focuses on beauty and aesthetics. Through my work, I explore themes related to female emancipation and strength while revealing their sensuality and sensitivity at the same time. I find beauty in graffiti/tags, they can make a place look quite downtrodden, but when you look closer there like modern-day calligraphy. I take photos of the wherever I go and incorporate them into my own work. I also combine painted splatters, ink marks, spray paint, and photography into my work. Original one-off work is expensive and not affordable for most, so to make my work more accessible but still exclusive and affordable I offer all my work as limited edition prints of 50.
5. What is Augmented Reality and why do you like adding it to your work?
Augmented reality (AR) is the real-time use of graphics and audio that integrates with real-world objects.
I enjoy finding new ways of evolving my work and am very curious about innovative technology. I create my work as a fairly traditional image that you would hang on the wall, however by combining augmented reality, I can bring a new dimension to my work.
I had a meeting with the guys from the Aerospace Digital Visualisation Suite (ADVS) in Prestwick about a different project I was working on. It got me curious about how I could bring this new technology into my art.
I searched and downloaded every single app that had Augmented Reality capabilities, and started to experiment with digital visuals with Artivive. It helped me easily enable the capabilities of Augmented reality in my work flawlessly.
6. What does the future hold?
I would like to look at doing some non-intrusive street art. Not everyone likes Street Art or Graffiti. So by combining Augmented Reality, I could make street art invisible to those who don’t want to see it and make it visible and interactive to those who do.
