New Babel: GPS-based Public Art AR App

iOS and Android (2019)

New Babel is Augmented Reality (AR) public art installation that transforms the heart of NYC into an immersive art environment. GPS-based, it activates a collection of large-scale AR art at Union Square Park, NYC. Audience can explore the art with a distant or closer look, even they can experience inside of the 3D art. This AR installation symbolizes endeavor towards social change, and as an homage to New York City as a global center for towers of knowledge, creative freedom, enterprise, and in-gathering.

Designed and developed by Min Kwak, produced by Maya Georgieva from XReality Center of The New School, in collaboration with artist William T. Ayton and The New School’s Global Catalyst Senior Fellow, Diana Ayton-Shenker.

Client was XReality Center of The New School, a prestigious institution advancing artistic innovation with emerging technologies in the areas of virtual, augmented, mixed reality.

Related Links : XReality Center, William T. Ayton, Global Momenta

App Store

Google Play

**Bird’s-eye View of AR Public Art Collection**

Ideation & Sketches

Prototypes

I created multiple prototypes testing GPS + AR through local-built apps made with Unity 3D. Tested how precise GPS could work with large-scale 3D objects with mobile AR app. The larger the objects, the accuracies seemed decreased, so it was essential to keep the balance between two values - scale and accuracy of GPS.

Iteration 1

Iteration 2

Iteration 3-1

Iteration 3-2

Iteration 3-3

Artworks & Shaders

These 2D oil paintings are artist William T. Ayton’s work. Based on his art, I created 3D Babel tower sculpture, spinning earth, and 4 painting installations surrounded them. Also produced textures for tower, the earth, and the posts for each painting installations extracting from his paintings, then created shaders which were mapped into the 3D models.