Touch AR by Brass Art at Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Wigan
Posted on 1 August 2021
Brass Art have worked remotely with software designers to create immersive artworks to be activated by the public.
The series of artworks in Touch AR address the past, the strange present, and times yet to come. From the Wigan Borough’s legacy of industry and coal mining to the recent renewal of local wetlands through the return of extinct, native species – there are signals for hope within this imagery.
The Touch AR app requires you to use fingertip touch to explore new artworks with your screen devices and trigger the animations and sounds.
Touch AR mixes 3D scans of the artists’ hands with 3D models and collaged images from the artists’ collection. This imagery is drawn from the local history of Wigan and Leigh, and their twinned town of Angers through its famous Tapestry of the Apocalypse. It includes examples of successful environmental regeneration within the local region and uses detailed images from historic illustrated books and prints held at Chetham’s Library, Manchester.
For the past five years the importance of touch and gesture have been at the forefront of Brass Art’s thinking and creative practice. Touch AR grew from an idea for a gallery exhibition into a multi-faceted, multi-site artwork in the light of Covid19 restrictions. The artworks can be found at Pennington Flash Nature Reserve – Leigh, Lancashire Mining Museum at Astley Green, The Turnpike, Leigh until 22 October and at Castlefield New Art Spaces: Wigan to Friday 3 September 2021
You are invited to please touch
DOWNLOAD THE APP – BRASS ART TOUCH AR
Touch AR is dedicated to the memory of Michael Powell, late Chief Librarian at Chetham’s Library, Manchester.
This project is part of Wanderland; a creative partnership between The Turnpike and Lancashire Wildlife Trust
ADDRESS: Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Wigan, the former Marks & Spencer store (11 Standishgate, Wigan, WN1 1UE). Two locations one facing Standishgate next to Caffe Nero and the other inside the Grand Arcade opposite Costa Coffee.
ABOUT BRASS ART
Brass Art is the collaborative practice of artists Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz and Anneké Pettican. The trio use light-based technologies to re-animate objects, create digital doubles and shadow-plays in practices of sculpture, installation and drawing www.brassart.org.uk
Engaging with archives and sites of special interest, Brass Art explore novel ways to bring unexpected or overlooked things to light, and to life. Whether unearthing forgotten objects in a museum store, unfolding subterranean maps in a 17th century library archive, or laser-scanning the interiors of famous writers’ rooms, Brass Art bring unexpected elements together into a dialogue often with surprising results. For Touch AR the technology of augmented reality has enabled the artists to bring their 2D artworks to animated life in a real world setting.
Find out more about Brass Art HERE
Touch AR has been supported by: Arts Council England, Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Wigan Council, Heritage Lottery, Carbon Landscape, The Deal, Manchester Metropolitan University, University of Huddersfield, University of Edinburgh, and Castlefield Gallery.
Image: Touch AR by Brass Art. Courtesy Livia Lazar.
