The ArtVertiser

The Artvertiser
A project by Julian Oliver, Clara Boj y Diego Diaz
Year of production: 2008 - project in process

Produced by Matadero Madrid
Please go to http://www.theartvertiser.com/ for more information

The Artvertiser is an augmented reality project exploring live, locational substitution of advertising content for the purposes of exhibiting digital artwork.
 

 
The Artvertiser takes Puerta del Sol Madrid, Times Square New York, Shibuya Tokyo and other sites dense with advertisements as exhibition space. The Artvertiser is an instrument of conversion and reclamation, taking imagery seen by millions and re-purposing it as a surface for presentation of art.

By 'training' a computer to recognize billboard advertisements, logos and other images of commerce, that content can then be 'replaced' with alternative material when seen through a specially engineered hand-held viewing device. If an internet connection is present at the site, it can be documented and published in on line galleries such as Flickr and YouTube.

While offering itself as a new platform for public art, The Artvertiser seeks to highlight the contradiction of Public Space in the context of what can and cannot be written on the surface of our cities. Neither graffiti or Fine Art, The Artvertiser exploits the inevitable redistribution of these surfaces in media such as digital film and photography, providing an alternative memory of the city.

By leveraging the internet as an up-scaling redistribution mechanism, The Artvertiser supposes that an urban site dense with proprietary imagery can be re-purposed as an exhibition space for art and archived as such in turn. Similarly, on-site exhibitions can be held whereby pedestrians are invited to use the looking device to view an exhibition on the buildings around them.