Image Credit : Rayyan Roslan, Eneasi Teaupa, Trent Clews-de Castella
Project Overview
Melbourne-based street artist Rone (Tyrone Wright) is globally recognised for his haunting portraits and ability to transform derelict spaces into transcendent works of art. His latest large-scale installation, Empire, took over the iconic Burnham Beeches mansion in the Dandenong Ranges between 6 March - 22 April. Empire featured a dreamlike combination of sights, sounds, botanical designs and even bespoke scents. But with such a myriad of sensory information to absorb, the challenge was finding a way to highlight Rone’s eye for detail and incredibly stylised practices.
The Antecedent AR experience was designed to capture how Rone reclaimed the lost beauty of Burnham Beeches in the space of 12 months. Powered by the newest Apple iPad Pros, Antecedent added to the drama of the exhibition and allowed visitors to move between the past and present.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Creative Director: Rayyan Roslan
Co-Producers: The Social Crew
Technical Artist: Trisha Chhabra
Software Development: Ian Ulpiano
Sound Design: Josh Mitchell
Supporting Partners: Apple, Visit Victoria and Visit Dandenong Ranges
Videography: Joseph Purdam & Eneasi Teaupa
Project Brief
Our brief was to create an evocative experience that would seamlessly meld with the existing atmosphere and mood of the Empire exhibition.
As immersive technology specialists, we were asked to augment the visitor experience with an AR installation. The installation needed to document both the heritage features of the building and Rone’s own creative processes.
The intention was to present visitors with an opportunity to step inside the photograph, to help them uncover the many layers in this multi-dimensional exhibition.
Project Need
The Antecedent AR experience was developed to heighten the intrigue of Empire, to take visitors inside a 3D world.
We generated two 3D scans or “digital twins” of the Norris Building at Burnham Beeches, using Matterport technology and our digital twin platform CAPTUR3D. Generating one digital twin pre-exhibition, and the other once the exhibition was complete, allowed us to create the effect of X-Ray vision. By leveraging Apple’s ARKit and positioning technology within the iPad Pro camera, visitors could alternate between the digital twins in real time - seeing through the exhibition into the bare bones of the past.
With a digital twin superimposed over the physical environment, visual triggers in the installation itself could perfectly align the AR experience with the real world. Visitors were able to easily alternate between the exhibition and the digital twin of the past with the simple tap of a button, fulfilling the illusion of travelling in time.
The iPad could be directed anywhere in a 360° rotation to drive conversation about the building’s past and the work undertaken by Rone to transform the space.
User Experience
Visitors were able to activate the Antecedent app in two special rooms, where Rone’s portraits of the actress Lily Sullivan were visual triggers to align the AR experience with the physical space. Alignment would initiate a curated opening sequence with eerie audio-visuals. Rone’s portraits would melt away into the past as the whole room degenerated in front of the visitor’s eyes. They could then move freely around the space to compare the difference between the two digital twins - the room onscreen and the room in reality.
Although the mansion is set to be redevelopment, should the building remain structurally intact, future visitors could still access these 3D layers through the app.
Experience the 3D tour online here: https://captur3d.io/view/phoria/rone-empire
Whilst the exhibition has packed down, it will forever live on as a virtual experience that allows anyone, anywhere in the world to transport themselves into Rone's Empire exhibit via desktop, mobile and VR.
Project Marketing
Empire was visited by 26,000+ people over the extended season. The exhibition was widely acclaimed by media outlets, such as The Guardian, Daily Mail, Herald Sun, Vogue Australia, Time Out, Broadsheet and ABC News.
The Antecedent AR experience featured as part of the official Empire program, with an interview from Creative Director Rayyan Roslan. Out of the 2200+ visitors surveyed, over 85% said they had experienced Antecedent, while 70% responded that this was their first time experiencing Augmented Reality. The largest age groups included in these responses were 35-44 (22.65%), 45-54 (25.12%) and 55-64 (24.49%).
The digital twins used in Antecedent were featured on the Empire website - https://www.r-o-n-e.com/empire - and shared through Rone’s newsletter. The digital twin of the exhibition itself was shared through Rone's instagram page, where it received over 21.3k views.
Project Privacy
The Antecedent project gathered anonymous analytics to understand how users engaged with the AR experience throughout the exhibition. We have not released any data or personal information in relation to Antecedent.
All personal data collected by Empire was voluntarily provided by visitors to the exhibition. Visitors were invited to submit a Visitor Survey - https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/empirerone - the feedback from which will be provided to Visit Victoria for future grant applications.
Digital - Entertainment & Leisure
Digital services have overtaken entertainment and leisure. They influence what and how we watch or listen to, where and how we eat, dine and play, how we book and how we interact before during and after entertainment events. We're looking for nominations that make entertainment even more entertaining.
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