McMullen_Winkler: urban gARdening

This urban_gARdening Augmented Reality (AR) intervention for the 2021 Ars Electronica Festival Garden New York City (curated by XREnsemble) creates a virtual botanical garden in which asphalt cracks and marks at the exhibition site become interfaces for botanical speculation. Here industrial damage, climate change and artificial plant growth coexist as portals to the past and possible futures.

How to see the virtual plants using this website:

1. Use a QR code reader on your mobile device and scan the QR code on top of this page (or visit: 8th.io/bfuvf). This will take you to 8th Wall, a web-based AR app.
2. With the app open, point your mobile device at the asphalt image targets below (visitors to the festival in New York can point their mobile devices directly at the asphalt cracks and marks at the exhibition site).
3. Once the virtual plants emerge, use a two-finger pinch gesture to scale and explore the plants interactively.

Botanical labels below each image describe each plant, as well as relating them to the exhibition site in New York City.