Concept, design and production: Graffio Arts. Artists: Miriam Bean, Alison Carpenter-Hughes, Thierry Miquel, Josh Semans. Producer: Ben Fredricks. Funding: Arts Council England.

ART IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

If you lived with in the town of Loughborough during the Covid -19 lockdown, you may have been one of 15,000 local residencies that received an augmented reality exhibition through your letterbox from The Culture Delivery Service. You’re welcome.

Building on a successful track record of using augmented reality (AR) art to engage new audiences, Graffio Arts have now developed the CDS. The Cultural Delivery Service saw the postal delivery of AR-enabled artist’s prints and artefacts to over 15,000 households in and around Loughborough in 2021.

The artworks were created by four outstanding Leicestershire based artists, who each took a unique approach to the use of AR to add an animated digital element to their work, allowing them to develop their practice and take their creativity to an audience in a new and inclusive way.

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THE GOALS OF THE CDS

Through the Cultural Delivery Service, we are aiming to tackle some of the barriers that can prevent audiences and artists from engaging with contemporary art by giving artists commissions and training and having their work delivered directly to people's homes. This was a progressive, consumer-friendly model ensuring that audiences still received high-quality culture in innovative ways, regardless of the current global pandemic while being restricted to their homes.

The CDS continues to be available for creatives and arts organisations that would like to test new models of engagement and the meaningful productisation of work.

HOW IT WORKED

A print arrived through the door. The free prints included instructions to download a free smartphone app, which enabled them to view an AR experience of the chosen Artist’s work via their device when pointed at the print.

We then offered the chance to go the next step. We created a website with an online store where the public could purchase an AR-enabled product from each artist, providing a richer experience for the audience and supporting the artists with a new income stream at that critical time.

INCLUSIVITY AND NEW AUDIENCES

The CDS provided us with the opportunity to pilot a new way of engaging audiences and reach potential future creatives.

We posted free AR artist’s prints to 17,484 households in the LE11 1, 2 and 3 postcodes, which are located in and around Loughborough. This adds up to a total audience base of over 30,000 people. The aim of the project was to reach everyone living in those areas, irrespective of their social, cultural or economic context.

If we seek to be more inclusive we need to broaden the range of quality creatives available to produce work when we launch projects. To be at the quality level required they probably have to have been through art college. How viable is the choice to go to art college for a variety of people at that age? Who makes it through and why? We will likely continue to have a shallow pool of creatives available that do not fully represent society if we don’t take steps to engage with younger audiences. We must show those considering future creative paths (in many different forms) that they are valuable and that their voices are required.

If a handful of young people that would not usually visit a gallery, engaged with this project, then that’s a start.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

It’s important for creatives to be aware of and be able to take advantage of new technology. These things continue to develop and could have potential implications for their practice, their audiences and broader cultural significance.

When embarking on these kinds of projects we talk through the technology with the associated creatives to ensure that they can make it work for them. By the end of the project, we hope that this new technology is now seen as a viable option for them in the future, should they wish to incorporate it into their practice. It is also provided free of charge.

CDS 001: THE FIRST PROJECT

The first cultural delivery was from four outstanding local creatives. We selected artists with a powerful but varied practice who produce work that is usually best displayed within a gallery context. How would their work translate into delivered products? The challenge was on.

CREATING PRODUCTS

We worked with each artist to produce a mail out print and to develop a product. We used augmented reality to bridge the gap between a gallery and home experience of their art. Each piece had a strict time limit and budget but we worked closely with them and they took each challenge in their stride

MIRIAM BEAN + JOSH SEMANS

This is not work that you might imagine would translate into an offering to be mass produced That's exactly why we chose Miriam to work with as we launch the CDS. Our ambition is to get art that would usually be seen in a controlled gallery context, essentially into a box to take the work to a wider audience. Miriam introduced us to and collaborated with, Josh Semans.

We have been impressed by Miriam's work for quite a while. We collaborated briefly on AREXTRA and were looking forward to the chance to work on something larger in scope.

Miriam is one of those artists that have found their focus quite young with a deep, structured practice that builds with clear, powerful projects. Miriam works with sound and tonal visual motifs.

There is complexity in the sound and process and causal relationships are constantly at play but the visual grounding is always so clear and striking that the work seems almost primal.

One of only a few worldwide, Josh Semans is an ondes Martenot player based in the north-west of England. Committed to bringing this enchanting musical instrument to people in new and different ways, Josh works on many fields with composers across the globe; writing and recording material for albums, soundtracks, installations, and a variety of other applications and mediums. His connection to his instrument runs deep, resulting in nuanced and sensitive performances.

As well as working frequently with others, Josh has recently established himself as a proficient solo artist. Amongst various collaborations and features, 2020 saw the exclusive premiere of his first single, Trust on BBC Radio 3, closely followed by the release of ...And the Birds Will Sing at Sunrise.

MIRIAM: FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM SOUNDCLOUD VIMEO

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ALISON CARPENTER-HUGHES

We've know Alison for a while and featured her work in a Gallery Without Walls project. At the time we discussed potential collaboration and were impressed with how good Alison was at idea generation. Alisons work often involves sewing and moves from delicate, figurative work to incredibly detailed, painterly pieces.

The hand made nature of the work encourages you to touch it but this is often not desirable in a gallery context. There is a contradiction here that we felt could be ripe to explore. This project will allow people to touch and interact with a piece of Alison's art. Alison is working on a piece that deals with endangered British birds. She's currently drawing, sewing and thinking about augmented reality...

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THIERRY MIQUEL

Thierry is another artist that we've known for quite a while. Thierry works with paint, found objects, wood and anything he can get his hands on. Thierry's work often contains deliberately crude, humorous and sometime oblique references born out of his life experiences.

There is often a focus on object within Thierry's practice. Even when Thierry works with paint on canvas it is clear that the surface is not meant to convey an image but very much a tactile battleground for his creative explorations.

The conceptual and tactile nature of Thierry's work combined with the fact that he's also a furniture maker and knows how to put things together meant that Thierry was an ideal choice for a project seeking to mass produce an artefact.

These figures have come out of a response to the current times and the uncertainty we have all been living through. The Bone Idols aim to provide the owner with hope, they represent a talisman of our times whilst we live through a Pandemic.

Bone Idols are been produced in a flat pack, easy assembled design. The owner will be immediately able to engage with the different tactile materials of the object. This is utilitarian art which aims to bring together a community of ‘Bone Idols' through the letterbox.

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If you are interested in taking advantage of the CDS as an organiser or as an artist then get in touch and let’s see what what culture we can deliver to people in their own homes!

Delivering Culture in Uncertain Times