Presented by KRAKlab and friends, our 2021 pair of workshops introduces mobile augmented reality and AI as essential contemporary tools in the presentation and dissemination of artwork in individual, institutional, and public practice.

About A-site

What: A-site’s hands-on workshops and interactive toolkit series introduce mobile augmented reality and AI as essential contemporary tools in the presentation and dissemination of artwork, and an accessible archive bridging past and future.

Impetus: “Big tech” offers ubiquitous, accessible tools that abet digital access -- but at a cost in areas of autonomy, ethics, and finances - for artist, curator, and public. Do we really want a global conglomerate gatekeeper?

Artists and artist-run institutions need their own tools, access, and knowledge to fully benefit from the implementation of AR and AI technologies.

Program: The A-site workshop and digital toolkit series put knowledge directly into the hands of artists.

Cutting-edge, custom AR and AI workshops for independent artists and small to mid-range arts organizations: introducing low-cost and free, open-source tools for the presentation and dissemination of multi-disciplinary artistic work.

Topics explore tensions between open-source and models and proprietary concerns, creative constraints and augmentations of AI, and exhibition space-making possibilities of AR.

For: Workshops are targeted to artists, curators, and arts presenters across a full range of disciplines. Previous digital experience is not required.

Experience

Hands-on: Workshop participants interact with AR and AI technologies through gamified learning processes which transpose their practice into augmented reality, using open-source tool sets.

Interactive and immersive: A-site’s innovative use of on-line platforms immerse participants in augmented and alternate realities, inspiring them, through form and content, to broaden their dissemination approaches

Ongoing: In addition to experiential workshops, participants receive access to online, interactive toolkits and forums

Topics

AR workshop: Investigates technological opportunities around inclusivity, mobility, way-finding, and decision-making - both individual and collaborative. Explores some of the more accessible and relevant AR tools for digital exhibition

AI workshop: Explores the treatment of AI as a co-curator