visions: interview with daniel birnbaum on curating acute artwork’s AR exhibition in singapore

ACUTE ART PRESENTS ‘VISIONS’ EXHIBITION IN SINGAPORE

 

‘visions’, acute art’s ongoing outdoor exhibition in singapore, brings together augmented reality works by ten contemporary artists, including cao fei, olafur eliasson, KAWS, precious okoyomon and tomás saraceno, among others. curated by daniel birnbaum, artistic director of acute art, the interactive exhibition also features a newly-commissioned set of AR works by singapore artist ho tzu nyen titled ‘language’, which explores philosophical and political themes. ‘visions’ opened as part of the 10th annual singapore art week and the national gallery of singapore’s light to night festival, and will remain on view until march 31, 2022. visitors can explore the AR artworks with accompanying soundscapes along the gallery’s facade with the civic district as their backdrop.

 

‘the thematic thread in “visions” is the sense of wonder. there is something spectral, yes ghost-like, about the works,’ daniel birnbaum tells designboom. ‘they remain invisible to the naked eye, but seen through the phone they can become quite overwhelming.’ previously the director of the moderna museet in stockholm, birnbaum has been director and curator of acute art since 2019. together, they translate the creative vision of renowned international artists into virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality (MR) artworks that viewers can engage with from anywhere around the globe.

 

we spoke with daniel birnbaum to find out more about the ongoing exhibition in singapore, his work with acute art, and his view on the future of digital art. read the interview in full below.

visitor viewing ho tzu nyen’s augmented reality artwork ‘language’ (2022). image courtesy of acute art

header image: marco brambilla, the four temperaments AR, 2020, augmented reality. courtesy of marco brambilla and acute art

 

INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL BIRNBAUM

 

designboom (DB): what works does the upcoming ‘visions’ exhibition bring together? is there a thread that underpins them all?

 

daniel birnbaum (DB): for most of us the visual possibilities created by augmented reality are still pretty surprising. I would say that the thematic thread in ‘visions’ is the sense of wonder. there is something spectral, yes ghost-like, about the works. they remain invisible to the naked eye, but seen through the phone they can become quite overwhelming. we made some of them very large. there are ten artists. a few very well-known artists from asia, like cao fei. and key artists from europe and the US, like olafur eliasson and KAWS.

 

DB: some of the works on view have been exhibited in the past in different locations around the world. do different contexts affect the way a work, or group of works, is displayed?

 

DB: we have created new constellations of works. and, of course, the fun thing with AR is how the artworks are woven into the environment around it – in the instance of the national gallery of singapore, the installation is outside and in some instances engaging with the façade of the museum. I think that those works which have been shown before, in london and new york, will look very different in the historical civic district in singapore. an incredible backdrop!

lu yang, gigant doku, augmented reality. courtesy of lu yang and acute art

 

 

DB: does the digital format allow you to change certain qualities in an artwork? for example, make it bigger or smaller depending on the context, or make it move in different ways?

 

DB: it’s surprising how easy it is the modify the works. AR really is a very flexible medium, which has allowed us to work with scale in interesting ways. size does matter!

 

DB: have you noticed any differences in the way the audience perceives an AR artwork compared to a physical one?

 

DB: yes, very much so. it’s still early days for AR, VR and mixed reality. the technology is not perfect. but the sense of surprise when the works appear is fun to watch. kids seem to love the sensationalism of it all.

marco brambilla, the four temperaments AR, 2020, augmented reality. courtesy of marco brambilla and acute art

 

 

DB: do you follow a similar approach when you curate physical and digital exhibitions? or is there a difference between the two?

 

DB: good question. I am not sure how to answer that. I made an ambitious VR show at frieze new york two years ago. it was a program showing some of acute art’s VR works, by anish kapoor and olafur eliasson and many others. that was more like programming a film festival, I think. the AR shows are more like electronic biennials, I would say. or like large exhibitions in the public sphere. I’m thinking of legendary shows like the sculpture project in münster, germany. a show in the public sphere that takes place once every decade, invented by my friend kasper könig. the next version will no doubt involve AR.

lu yang, gigant doku, augmented reality. courtesy of lu yang and acute art

 

 

DB: can you tell us more about the set of AR works ho tzu nyen has created for ‘visions’?

 

DB: tzu nyen is an incredibly interesting artist whose work I have followed for many years. we invited him to a large conference in stockholm when I was still the director of moderna museet. he is an unusually philosophical artist, and this new piece is actually a kind of dialog between philosophers. he is exploring this fascinating group of thinkers in japan known as the kyoto school. they combined european methods of thought with japanese traditions. tzu’s piece, which is not only pleasant, involves a kind of collage of voices and very different from anything else we have created. he calls his work ‘language,’ and it explores philosophical and political themes.