Tag Archives: Bruce Sterling

More on Art Center’s Reality Augmented course (video)

Art Center instructor Ryan D'Orazi demonstrates his Enlitenar AR app during the class' final presentation.

Last month we told you about an augmented reality (AR) course that took place this past summer at Art Center called Reality Augmented. The course was co-taught by Graphic Design instructor Guillaume Wolf and science fiction author Bruce Sterling; hosted by the Graphic Design Department; and sponsored by Amsterdam-based Layar, whose AR platform claims more than one million active users.

Layar documented the class and recently posted a short three-minute video that does an excellent job of capturing the energy and ambition of this experimental course. ”Our class here  at Art Center is a ‘doing’ class,” says Sterling in the video. “People were working with LAYAR to really do apps. I wanted them to be able to leave the class saying that they can augment reality.”

Sterling goes on to say, “Augmented reality is in the artistic phase where a lot of the most effective players are designers. The best AR efforts are coming out of smaller groups of three, four or 12 people.”

Watch the entire video after the break.

Continue reading →

Students Spend Their Summer Augmenting Reality

Still from the promotional video for Juju, a student-created augmented reality application.

This past summer term, Art Center welcomed back its first visionary-in-residence, science fiction author Bruce Sterling (Schismatrix, Islands in the Net, The Caryatids) to co-teach an augmented reality (AR) transdisciplinary design studio with Graphic Design instructor Guillaume Wolf called Augmenting Reality.

Not certain what AR is exactly? You’re not alone. For the studio, Sterling and Wolf defined AR as a software program that must: 1) mix the virtual with the real, 2) be interactive in real time and 3) register in three dimensions.

AR is an industry still on the cusp, and applications are only now starting to sneak out of the labs and into consumers’ hands. “It may even be a bit before the cusp,” Sterling says of the AR industry. “It’s an old technology, but it’s a baby industry.”

In the course—hosted by the College’s Graphic Design Department and sponsored by Amsterdam-based Layar, a company whose AR platform claims more than one million active users—teams of students designed both concepts and prototype AR apps that ranged from virtual pets to an augmented “spiritual reality” experience.

Layar's Maarten Lens-FitzGerald gets some FaceTime with Graphic Design student Shi Jie Lim and Graphic Design Department chair Nik Hafermaas. Photo: Alex Arestei, Layar.

“I was impressed by the student’s concepts, execution and their presentation,” says Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, general manager and co-founder of Layar, who watched the teams’ final presentations virtually (during the final he was “passed” around the classroom on an instructor’s smartphone). “Even with innovative media, it’s still important to be able to tell the story using mainstream media. Not all AR people know this; but the students did.”

Words, no doubt, that are music to instructor Wolf’s ears, who wanted to make sure the students were designing based on something people can actually connect with.

“Why are people interested in anything? It’s not just about design, it’s about the psychology behind it,” says Wolf of what he tries to impart to his students. “Why is a product sexy? Why do we want it? How does a designer create that desire?”

(Read more, and view videos of the work, after the jump.)

Continue reading →

In Case You Missed It

As you know, there’s always something going on when it comes to Art Center alumni, students and faculty.

  • Cardwell Jimmerson show of work by Art Center alum and former faculty member Vincent Robbins—on display through Sept. 3— is another of the gallery’s great exercises in expansionist art history. L.A. Times Culture Monster

    Work by Vincent Robbins

  • Late Art Center alum and faculty member John Altoon will have works on display at Garboushian Gallery exhibit celebrating Armenian contemporary artists. Asbarez Post
  • Transportation Design alumnus Gabriel Wartofsky begins Kickstarter campaign for folding e-bike. Sustainable Business Oregon
  • Art Center partner, Bernhardt Design president Jerry Helling, talks about working with Art Center students to design furniture. New York Times
  • Alumna and faculty member Diana Thater’s Peonies, a nine-monitor videowall, now on view at the Wexner Center. Artdaily.org
  • Art Center’s “Visionary in Residence” Bruce Sterling creates his own augmented reality. Wired

Cyberpunk vs. Rock Critic


Retromania. Gothic high-tech. Favela chic. Steampunk. Collective intelligence. Revival cults. Frankenstein mash-ups. Hauntology. The shock of the old: past, present and future in the first decade of the 21st-first century.

Thursday night, Art Center’s “Visionary in Residence” Bruce Sterling plays host to music critic and blogger Simon Reynolds, author of Energy Flash and Bring the Noise. The evening’s goal: to confront the implications of Simon’s latest book, Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past.

Cyberpunk vs. Rock Critic: Bruce Sterling and Simon Reynolds
Thursday, June 16, 7:30 p.m.
L.A. Times Media Center
Hillside Campus

Project Kicks Off with LAYAR DAY L.A.

Layar is sponsoring a project at Art Center this upcoming Summer Term, which kicks off with a symposium open to all.

LAYAR DAY L.A. will be Friday, May 20, and will include a workshop and symposium at Hillside Campus. LAYAR DAY L.A. will be a full day of hacking space and time with augmented reality. Join us as we seek inspiration from visionary thinkers and street-level artists—and help Layar make some cool AR in the process.

Meet the Layar team at 10:45 am at the Geffen Contemporary for an informal visit to the Art in the Streets exhibition of street art. MOCA opens at 11 a.m., and admission is $10 at the door.

At 1:30 p.m., the program moves to Art Center, where artist Sander Veenhof and Layar’s Gene Becker will lead a hands-on workshop teaching how to make augmented reality experiences on the Layar platform. Street art, public AR art exhibitions and historical layers will be used as examples of hacking space and time.

Following the workshop at 3 p.m., there will be a symposium featuring some of the world’s most visionary and creative minds in augmented reality. The incredible lineup of speakers includes noted author and former Art Center visionary-in-residence Bruce Sterling, Layar co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, Scott Fisher of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and Dutch artist Sander Veenhof.

The symposium and workshop are free but space is limited, so reserve your spot at both today!

Made Up: Design’s Fictions at Wind Tunnel Gallery

On Saturday, Jan. 29, Art Center’s Graduate Media Design presented the opening reception for Made Up: Design’s Fictions, showcasing the work of major and emerging international practices that forecast, hypothesize, muse, skylark, role-play, put on airs, freak out or otherwise fake it to produce work that is relevant to our increasingly confusing and accelerated world.

Held in the South Campus wind tunnel gallery, MAKING UP featured a panel discussion with Fiona Raby and Bruce Sterling, two of the world’s most influential voices at the intersection of fiction and design. The panel, led by MDP core faculty Tim Durfee and moderated by MDP Chair Anne Burdick, discussed tactical anachronisms, designing for ambiguous reality, and the re-emergence of speculative practice in the 21st century. It will be moderated by MDP Chair Anne Burdick.

Enjoy the photos below from the event:

Also, check out the video below of the OutRun video game concept car created by Garnet Hertz.