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techniques and inspirations.The benefits that this has are obvious – theexperience of visiting a gallery and viewingart can be enormously enriched when viewershave fast, easy access to a wealth of informationabout what they are seeing. Moreover, italso makes it easy for the audience to keeptrack of, and follow up with, the work of an artistthey were particularly impressed by. The resultis that, through this use of technology, art becomesever more a part of everyday life.Recently, it has been fascinating to see howitems of technology like QR codes have begunto enter the world of art. Of course, the combinationof art and technology, particularly artand the internet, is nothing new. Online galleries,such as Agora Gallery’s ARTmine, are increasinglypopular and are becoming an importantpart of the international art market, whilemuseums often make it possible to book ticketsfor a particular exhibition online. Moreover, withthe developing enthusiasm for video art and artwhich employs screens, social media and even audience involvement, it is clear that many artists and art-lovers alike are excitedby the creative possibilities that technology provides.Digital freelancer Ian Ozsvald, of Mor Consulting (http://morconsulting.com) doesn’t normally work with galleries or artists, but herealized that the image recognition software he had been working with could connect with art in an interesting way. He workedwith a space in England which was hosting the work of local artists to develop a way in which visitors to the space could usetheir phones to scan the images on the walls – which would take them to further information about the work and the artist. Theproject was a great success, and everyone had a good time later on celebrating by scanning people’s faces to find out whichpiece of art they looked most like!What Ian found particularly notable in this experience was the connectionit brought between the visitors and the artwork. Previously, theaudience would of necessity have had to have been fairly passive consumersof the art; however profound the emotional experience, theyhad no way to delve deeper into the context and details of the painting.Now, the potential for a meaningful emotional experience is still there,but added to it is the ability to combine the viewing with a rich sourceof information and further interest which is entirely accessible to theviewer, and remains under their control. Just like QR codes, this bringsart closer to its audience, making it more truly a part of their lives. Forpeople who are used to having the world at their fingertips through theinternet, this is a significant improvement in the entire gallery visit. Sincethis kind of data is customarily part of our normal lives now, it is importantto ensure that it is not missing from the gallery experience. Art ispart of the world we live in – both real and virtual.In fact, art is increasingly working to break down the barriers betweenthe real and virtual worlds. Augmented reality technology takes the viewof the world that you have in front of you and ‘augments’ it in some way,so that the version you see on your screen is almost the same as thereal world, but has some important detail added or removed. Naturally,this idea is intriguing for artists; changing the way people perceive theworld has been a part of art for centuries, and this is only a new way tocontinue that trend.During the past summer, Public Ad Campaign and The Heavy Projects showed how they could use their augmented reality appso that people using it would see the world shorn of advertisements, but full of art. They showed how in Times Square, the viewfrom the app replaced movie billboards and phone booth ads with virtual examples of street art, by artists such as Ron English,John Fekner, PosterBoy, Doctor D and Ox. The interesting thing about this kind of project is that it interacts with the real world43 ARTisSpectrum