Digital Animation and Augment Reality as a Way of Added Value to Artistic Exhibition

Abstract

A public art exhibition aims to allow for the best possible appreciation of the works of the artist by the largest volume of potential audience. This article explores a strategy to maximize public interest and engagement using Digital Animation and Augmented Reality technology as a way of promoting a complementary look at the work of art in this context. The exhibition No Plan for Japan, consisting of six collections of original drawings by the Portuguese illustrator Ana Aragão was on display at the Museu do Oriente – Fundação do Oriente between November 5th, 2021 and February 14th, 2022. The artist drawings emerge from the utopia and fantasy of creating imaginary buildings that stand out for their great degree of detail and the sensation of life and movement they convey, through elements such as flags, fluttering cloths or even through the fragile balance of their foundations. Inspired by this implicit movement, a teacher from the undergraduate course in Video Games and Multimedia Applications at Universidade Lusófona do Porto, guided a group of four students in a joint project animating 18 illustrations selected from No Plan for Japan and, using the mobile application Artivive, integrated these animations in the exhibition space through Augmented Reality. This study intends to analyse the results of this collaborative project demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed strategy in contributing to an increased and differentiated look at the exhibited artworks.