FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Entertainment

Create Pocket-Sized Tornadoes with a Magical Art App

Two French artists are making holograms you can touch with a clever mixed reality app.
GIF via 

Capturing video of a tornado and turning it into an abstract 3D hologram? Welcome to a new set of experiments French artists Adrien M. and Claire B. are trying out with their app, AM&CB. The duo, who produced the high tech dance performances Pixel and Hakunai we covered last year, created the app for their art book La Neige n'a pas de Sens. It's a mixed reality program that can recognize certain images and overlay them with moving 3D visuals. Now, the duo are escaping the pages of La Neige n'a pas de Sens and teaching the program to interact with new kinds of images. What's really amazing is that they seem to have figured out a way to create holograms that the physical body can touch and interact with, like in the GIF above.

Advertisement

AM&CB animates an image from La Neige n'a pas de Sens. Screencap via

Artists like Scorpion Dagger, Sutu, and Francis Adair McKenzie, and groups like REIFY are also exploring the seam between digital and physical reality, which burst wide open when Pokémon GO blew up earlier this year. Unlike the addictive and demanding Pokémon game, AM&CB is designed playful, creative experiences that allow the artists to feel out the reality's borders in a fun and low-pressure way. Check out their progress in the videos below.

La neige n'a pas de sens from Adrien M & Claire B on Vimeo.

See more of Adrien M. and Claire B.'s work on their website. Download the AM&CB app here.

Related:

User Preferences: Tech Q&A With Adrien M And Claire B

Dancer Bends Light in Stunning Projection-Mapped Performance

Watch Dancers Wander Through A Digital Dream World