Artvertiser with Julian Oliver and Damian Stewart :: Workshop: May 4-6 and 10-17, 2011 @ Finnish Academy of Fine Art :: Public Presentation/Lecture: May 4 and 17-19 :: Artvertiser Walk: May 7 and 11-13 :: Helsinki, Finland.

The Artvertiser imagines a near-future where advertising in public space can be replaced by art. It is an urban, augmented-reality project, consisting of custom-made handheld binocular devices and specially designed software. The Artvertiser situates the ‘read-only’, proprietary imagery of our public spaces as a ‘read-write’ platform for the presentation of non-proprietary and critically engaging content. During the workshop, participating artists will create visual works to replace urban advertisements in Helsinki. They will be able to experiment and analyse real time computer vision techniques developed by Julian Oliver and Damian Stewart.

The workshop is co-organized by m-cult together with the Gizmology project at the Finnish Academy of Fine Art. It is targeted to artists and students who share an interest in Augmented Reality, ‘adbusting’ and culture jamming. A primary theme of the workshop is developing and deploying graphical, critical commentary on the impact of advertising on the visual culture of our cities.

Artwork made during the workshop will be presented in a public walking tour in the streets of Helsinki, using the Artvertiser Billboard Interception Units, specially crafted digital binoculars that transform advertisements into art.

Artvertiser is a project by Julian Oliver and Damian Stewart. Since its first presentation at Berlin’s transmediale 2010 festival, Artvertiser has been shown in Brussels, Rotterdam and Madrid.