LO #5

“Unexpected Growth” is an augmented reality installation by Tamiko Thiel in 2018 and part of Whitney Museum’s exhibition “Programmed: Rules, Codes, and Choreographies in Art, 1965-2018.” Viewers were able to experience the installation directly through their smartphones on the Whitney Museum’s terrace. After opening the video, viewers can walk through the balcony and see it crawling with unchartered growths and plants that create an oceanic alternative to the New York high rise. I find most interesting how the futuristic, fictional visuals essentially occupies and invades the viewer’s very physical location, which to some degree closes the typical perception gap between such type of futuristic art and the viewer. Personally this digital installation epitomizes the title of the class for it is enabled by technology to bridge reality and another space, in this case the artist’s creation of a submerged New York in some undated future, into coexisting as one dimension. It allows a degree of inclusion and interaction for viewers that is not usually provided by more traditional art mediums.