Philadelphia Artist Goes To Space With Augmented Reality Artwork Initiative
Artist D. S. Bradford looks to the stars as his next (virtual) canvas with his new augmented reality fine art activation, titled, Go Love Universally.
Bradford is the first artist to create accessible virtual artwork on the International Space Station, as well as Mars, with his first piece, aptly named, Future.
This art initiative comes at a time in which much of the world is still under travel restrictions due to COVID-19 and was designed to include everyone around the planet and those orbiting, watching from above. Born out of exploring a way to express and distribute fine art to the public while using consumer technology, Bradford started with using bus stops as fiducial markers in Philadelphia, New York City, San Francisco, Barcelona, and London.
Bradford initially introduced his augmented art initiative when speaking to Philadelphia Weekly, stating, “While social distancing, I was able to come up with a way to share positive messages with people using augmented reality and recognizable visual triggers found easily around Philly.
“It is a way for a mass amount of people to interact with their surroundings in a safe way that also creates positive feelings through the messages being communicated.”
Within two weeks of launching his Go Love Universally activation, Bradford took his art initiative into space, bringing the art from Philadelphia to Mars. For curious consumers of this activation, all pieces can be viewed at select locations using the Artivive app, a free augmented reality fine art app available for iOS and Android.
Steve Morrison, co-host of Philadelphia morning show Preston & Steve (93.3 WMMR), commented, “Hey, this is pretty cool! What if the aliens in They Live just wanted to spread positive messages? Well, David has a potential answer with his project. Kudos to you, Sir!”
Go Love Universally is an ongoing project, as future collaborations with artists are to be announced.