ALMET MEDIA LAB

Media Lab, in which participants learned how to «animate» murals in augmented reality and created a series of masks on Instagram for the public art program «Tales of the Golden Apples».

Tales of the golden apples
Street Art Research Institute
Tatneft
NUVO BURO GROUP

Context

A three-week online lab in which participants ages 10 to 35 learned how to «animate» murals in augmented reality from scratch and created a series of masks on the Instagram account of the «Tales of the Golden Apples» public art program.

At the end of 2020, the second laboratory of the educational project «City After», Almet Media Lab, was launched. Its participants, residents of the city and surrounding areas, were invited to work at the intersection of public art and modern technology, and in the end to create their own virtual works based on the existing works of the public art program.
During the lab, the participants mastered the basic tools for creating augmented reality products, as well as learned the basics of Motion Design (2D/3D). The result of their work was «brought to life» murals and small street art works – a series of masks on Instagram. Some of the works respond to some sort of action: a touch on the phone screen or a smile, while others require hovering over the initial art object or its photo.
Sketches by Polina Efremova. Searching for the image for the mask based on the mural «The Moon and the Sun» by Damir Bozik.
Augmented Reality (AR)
An environment that augments the physical world with data and/or objects in real time.
Motion design or animation design
Visual design for video, television and film.
At the end of 2020, the second laboratory of the educational project «City After», Almet Media Lab, was launched. Its participants, residents of the city and surrounding areas, were invited to work at the intersection of public art and modern technology, and in the end to create their own virtual works based on the existing works of the public art program.

During the lab, the participants mastered the basic tools for creating augmented reality products, as well as learned the basics of Motion Design (2D/3D). The result of their work was «brought to life» murals and small street art works – a series of masks on Instagram. Some of the works respond to some sort of action: a touch on the phone screen or a smile, while others require hovering over the initial art object or its photo.
Sketches by Polina Efremova. Searching for the image for the mask based on the mural «The Moon and the Sun» by Damir Bozik.
Over three weeks, the laboratory participants learned to create their own creative projects from scratch, existing simultaneously in augmented reality and in urban space. In their works people constructed new meanings of already existing works together, studied local culture and history of Zakamye, and embodied their ideas in the virtual world of augmented reality.

Process


An open call for participation in the laboratory was published in the social networks and media of the public art program: in the application form it was necessary to send a short letter of reflection on the subject of «How exactly do I want to complement or change the reality around me with the help of modern technology?». Eleven people between the ages of 10 and 37 were selected. Many of the participants had no experience with augmented reality technologies, so the format of Instagram masks was chosen for the final projects – they can be created without any knowledge of programming.

After listening to the introductory course, the laboratory participants chose an art object to «animate» and began practical work on their projects under the guidance of the supervisors. An important part of the preparation was the work with folklore and anthropological materials and an online excursion from #гидпосказкам. Results of the laboratory in the form of masks on Instagram became an important part of the public art program: there is a new excursion route, which introduces the residents and guests of Almetyevsk to the works of the laboratory participants, and also tells how exactly these works reveal the meanings of the mural. There is a QR code on the sign next to the art object, which leads to the AR mask on Instagram @almetpublicart and helps «bring the mural to life».
Works of students:
Maria Kobyakova's AR Mask
Mural «Altynchech and Karakuz», artist Guzel Garipova
As part of a lecture on Spark AR, curator Maria Kobyakova created a mask based on the mural «Altynchech and Karakuz» by Guzel Garipova (Kazan) to illustrate the process. The mask can be used by two people simultaneously.
AR mask of Anastasia Kuznetsova
Mural «White Flowers», artist Ivan Ninety
Anastasia Kuznetsova (St. Petersburg) has created a mask for the mural «White Flowers», painted by the artist Ivan Ninety. The artist's work is a symbol of healing and hope for those struggling with the Covid-19 pandemic. Anastasia has added this meaning: she describes her mask as a visual and sound meditation in the form of a motion collage. You can immerse yourself in a relaxing atmosphere with the familiar kaleidoscope effects from childhood.
AR Mask by Ildar Zaidullin
Mural «The Story of Apples. Diptych», artist Hitnes
Ildar Zaidullin (Almetyevsk) chose Hitnes' diptych «History of Apples»: «The black raven represents evil. He plucks and throws the beautiful fruit. The doves are inactive and do not try to chase the villain away. The whole piece is an allusion to our society. I wanted to show that if we don't fight back against injustice and evil, we can lose everything».
AR Mask by Yulia Petrova and Sergei Lepyatsky
Mural «Mrs. Goose: Tradition and Freedom», artist Nicolas Sanchez
Music: Zarina Vildanova, Albert Makhmutov
Gusyna outfit design: Illari Akhmetzyanova, Anastasia Kirillova
Sergey Lepyatsky and Yulia Petrova (Almetyevsk) offer a choice of several images for the mural «Mrs. Goose: tradition and freedom»: the user may decide for himself what Mrs. Goose will wear. The concept of this paired work is to show how the world and fashion are changing, but cultural heritage, traditions and people's attitude towards them remain. The authors of the mask also wanted to express their support for the designers of Tatarstan.
AR mask by Akim Vasilyev
Mural «White She-wolf», artist Dulk
10-year-old Akim Vasiliev (St. Petersburg), the youngest participant in the lab, worked on the mural «White She-wolf» by Spanish artist Dulk. When touched, the depicted characters, a she-wolf and birds, acquire their voices and integrate them into the music.
Polina Efremova's AR Mask
Mural «Moon and Sun», artist Damir Bozik
Polina Efremova (Almetyevsk) regularly observes the diptych «Moon and Sun» by Almetyevsk artist Damir Bozik on her way to work, and viewing these two works has become a ritual for her. The mask created by Polina reacts to a person's smile: at that moment the Moon is replaced by the Sun and vice versa, when the face becomes serious, the Moon appears. Both murals express different emotions: the «Moon» is associated with melancholy, while the «Sun» awakens with a bright palette of colors and makes you smile! All combined in one AR mask: the moon changes to the sun when one begins to smile.
AR-mask by Azat Ardatov
«Moon and Sun» mural, by Damir Bozik
Azat Ardatov (Almetyevsk) was inspired by the same mural, reviving the part of the work dedicated to the Moon: «I wanted to make the place where I live bright and eventful, like an adventure. The idea came at once, or rather the music came first, and then everything else, and it stirred and transformed into a creative impulse». Bozik's work, done in pointillism, reminded him of the 8-bit games he loved to play as a child.
Pointillism
A stylistic movement in Neo-Impressionist pictorial art that is based on the manner of painting in separate dotted or rectangular strokes.
AR-mask of Alexander Ilyin (Boyan)
Street art work, «Fruits» art group
Alexander Ilyin (Boyan) from Almetyevsk had already participated in the «Ornaments of the City» lab before. For his augmented reality project he worked with Troubadour, an art object created by the «Fruits» art group from Perm as part of a bigger project «Ornaments of the City». With one touch, the user can change the image of the Troubadour and the music he sings.
Alexandra Larchenko's AR Mask
Street art work «Psst», artist amENDoim
Alexandra Larchenko (St.Petersburg) created a humorous gastronomic sketch for the work «Psst» in which a guy from around the corner offers to secretly try the national Tatar dish - echpochmak. Alexandra decided to work in a similarly ironic manner, in the style of black-and-white silent films and stop-motion. «Once a day, echpochmak should be in your stomach!»
Ilham Sharipov's AR Mask
Mural «ABC», artist Dmitry Fatum
Music: Radif Kashapov
Ilham Sharipov (Naberezhnye Chelny) «revived» the mural «Alphabet/Әlifba» by the Kiev artist Dmitry Fatum. «The letters didn't let me go. The significance of letters in history was blowing my mind, I felt joy and happiness just thinking about it». In his work Ilham wanted to show how the multifaceted development of the Tatar people went through internal development, borrowing and mixing of cultures of different nations and states. Five scripts were used for this purpose: Runic, Uyghur, Arabic, Latin and Cyrillic. Radif Kashapov worked with the musical accompaniment, who showed through the music the history of the time: «From the ancient noise grows nomadic melody, to eventually become the basis for electronic composition».

Authors

In film production since 2009. More than 50 cinema and TV projects. Simultaneously works in the field of development, implementation and integration of multimedia content in theater productions, interactive museums, immersive installations and shows for various companies / theaters (Russia / USA) as a director, linear and creative producer.
Creative director of the Solaris FX studio in St. Petersburg. Multimedia director, main activity is 3D mapping. She has worked on the video design of theatrical performances and multimedia shows, festivals and large events.
Creative director of haptic.team interactive studio. Developed over 50 interactive installations with augmented and virtual reality for major city events and business and art events. Winner of the competition for the best installation at the international festivals of light «Circle of Light-2018», «Night of Light in Gatchina-2018». and the competition for the best mapping «Night of Light in Gatchina 2019».
Curator of educational excursion style public art program in Almetyevsk. Ekaterina is the initiator of the series of tours in Almetyevsk «Guide to Fairy Tales» and the educational school «City after», which hosted the laboratory Almet Media Lab.
CG generalist Solaris FX, lecturer at computer design department at SPbSUC. In November 2020. Ruslan was the technical director of the International Multimedia-Fest «Multimedia in Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Literature, Music» in the Lumiere Hall (Saint-Petersburg). Also in 2020 together with other specialists from the Solaris FX studio Ruslan created 3D graphics for the Victory Concert on the Mamaev Kurgan: the team was responsible for a whole cycle of video projections.
Sound designer of theater and cinema, graduated from St. Petersburg State University of Cinema and Television. Among the projects of the sound designer are: «The Romanovs. Legends and Fates» (Peterhof Museum of Fine Arts), «The Brothers Karamazov» (St. Petersburg State Drama Theatre «Comedian's Refuge»), «The last station», 2009 (dir. Michael Hoffman), «Wings», 2010 (dir. Alexey Lobanov), «Peter. Summer. Love», 2014 (directed by Andrei Khvostov) and others.
  • Akim Vasiliev
  • Polina Efremova
  • Anastasia Kuznetsova
  • Alexandra Larchenko
  • Lilia Simonova
  • Julia Petrova
  • Azat Ardatov
  • Sergey Lepyatsky
  • Ilham Sharipov
  • Ildar Zaidullin
  • Alexander Ilyin
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