Paulo Majano’s unique interactive art project opens at the Surrey Art Gallery on April 9.
Using augmented reality technology, I Was Here transforms photographs of people enjoying outdoor spaces in Surrey and the surrounding area into 3D scenes that invite the viewer to interact with the people and objects in them.
Majano captures commonplace scenes of people enjoying recreation time (“The Carved Tree,” “The Joke,” and “The Picnic Party”) that each contain a latent or hidden image.
When the viewer holds up a smartphone or tablet to it using an augmented reality application, a 3D scene appears showing new details and angles.
Majano’s complex images offer potentially new narratives and layers of meaning.
Viewers can interact with the scene and reframe the composition from different points of view, or they can move in for a closer look or glance behind objects to discover elements not initially visible in the original photo.
Majano is an artist and art educator working in the Vancouver area.
He has an MFA from the University of British Columbia and is an Augmented Reality Developer.
For the past decade, he has produced exhibitions and projects merging a figurative approach, based on his background as a painter, with technology-based forms of presentation and interaction.
Majano’s website is www.majanoart.org/
Paulo Majano: I Was Here is displayed from April 9 to June 12 at the Surrey Art Gallery, 13750 88 Ave. The opening reception is on April 9 from 6:30−9:30 p.m.
An artist talk takes place May 14 from 2:30-4 p.m. – in conversation with exhibition curator Brian Foreman.