Student-created prints become moving stories through a visitor’s phone. A browser-based AR application connects the physical exhibition to the animation behind each artwork.
The workWeb augmented reality · Interactive exhibition
Our contributionWeb AR application by Interactive Guru · Artwork and animation by KCAD students
For Alternate Unrealities, KCAD students redrew five familiar cartoons to explore more inclusive representation. The exhibition needed a way for visitors to discover the moving work alongside the printed art, using the phone they already had with them.
The students and exhibition collaborators created the prints, animations and perspectives expressed in the work. Their reinterpretations include princesses with more varied bodies and skin, a Greek-inspired Wonder Woman, a racially inclusive Mystery Inc., a service dog for Charlie Brown and an international team.
Interactive Guru developed the browser-based augmented reality application. A visitor scans the exhibition sign, presses Go and points the phone at a poster. Image tracking recognizes the artwork and places the matching video over it through the camera view.
There is no separate app installation. The printed image supplies the target and the browser supplies the viewing experience.
Print an original exhibition target and let the matching animation play through your phone. These downloads are the artwork recognized by the original experience.
PrincessDownload original poster
Wonder WomanDownload original poster
Scooby-DooDownload original poster
PeanutsDownload original poster
Powerpuff GirlsDownload original posterUse one of the original images above. Keep the complete image in proportion, with no cropping. Place it flat in good, even light.
On your phone, open the original web AR link below and press Go. Allow camera access when your browser asks.
Hold the phone so the whole poster is visible. Keep it steady until the artwork is recognized. If a play button appears, tap it to begin the film.
Use a current mobile browser with camera access enabled. Tracking depends on the device, lighting and printed image. You can also explore the original media in the camera-free preview below.
Choose a poster and reveal its animation in the phone.
Princess: the original print opens its matching animated scene.
Explore all five student reinterpretations. The first three are silent excerpts; Peanuts and Powerpuff Girls include their original narration, with captions available. The descriptions below explain what each animation shows.
A princess celebration poster becomes a critique of idealized beauty. Text says the familiar princess images set an unrealistic body-image standard. The animation moves closer to the characters, contrasting a thin figure and clear skin with larger, more muscular body types and skin with blemishes and scars. The characters change as those alternatives appear. The excerpt ends on a smiling, curly-haired character in a yellow top.
A comic-book image opens into an animated Wonder Woman. Callouts identify pale skin, flowing black hair and an overly Americanized costume. A sketched figure spins across her, introducing a redesigned character in blue, white and gold. New callouts identify darker skin and tied-back curly hair. The excerpt ends while the new design is being introduced.
Scooby-Doo and the gang stand outside a haunted house and graveyard. The words ‘under representation’ appear above them. The group runs out of the scene, leaving the house, moon, bats and headstones in view, then returns with changed character designs under the title ‘Mystery Inc!’ The view moves closer to Velma; the excerpt ends as a caption beginning ‘Velma is’ appears.
The familiar group portrait changes to include characters with disabilities. Snoopy becomes Charlie Brown’s service dog, Dolores uses a wheelchair, Schroeder wears a hearing aid, and Peppermint Patty has a prosthetic arm. The view moves closer to each character before bringing the group together again under a message about embracing differences.
Townsville is on fire, and the original team needs help. An international team arrives: Blanca from the Philippines, Behe from Palestine, and Beatriz from the Dominican Republic. The animation introduces each redesigned character, then celebrates a new generation of the team.
Artwork, animation and the viewpoints expressed in the films belong to KCAD students and exhibition collaborators. Interactive Guru developed the web AR application.
This preview plays the exhibition films without using your camera. Open the live AR experience to try image tracking.
“Interactive Guru partnered with us on several cutting-edge technology projects.”
Bill FischerKendall College of Art and Design
A physical object, a story or a place can be the beginning of an experience.
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