Voxel Bridge: Jessica Angel Brings Together AR and Blockchain at the Vancouver Biennale

This article is part of a series in which I investigate the potential of Augmented Reality and Blockchain for transforming the field of public art. As a curator, my understanding of the world is deeply shaped by dialogue with artists. I feel it’s important to start with Jessica Angel, because much of what I know about the intersections of art and the blockchain comes from my conversations with her as she was developing the Voxel Bridge project for the Vancouver Biennale.

Barrie Mowatt, the Artistic Director and Founder of the Vancouver Biennale, became interested in Angel’s practice almost a decade ago when they met during a trip to Colombia, and introduced me to her when I started my position at the Biennale in 2018. Angel’s art and curatorial practice is centered on exploring our understanding of space – both physical and digital – by visualizing complex systems through which ‘space’ is constructed and perceived.

Vancouver Biennale has always focused on transforming public space through contemporary art, and Mowatt’s interest in AR has been part of a larger vision for the integration of technology into public art. When he invited Angel to create an immersive installation under Cambie Bridge, it was the proposed AR integration that set it apart from all previous Biennale projects.

A bridge underpass is a natural site for such a project: a place both beneath and above the surface. Its striking architecture is defined by flow – of having to support the constant movement of traffic both above and beneath the bridge, while seamlessly integrating into a grid of streets and highways. Standing under a bridge is a rare glimpse into the guts of the city; and while it functions as public space, it is an interstitial zone easily overlooked when considering public art.

Voxel Bridge proposes to transform the architecture of the underpass with a network of bright neon vinyl lines, grids, and patterns that offer a visual interpretation of a blockchain system – a decentralized network of nodes that contain information, data, and value, while creating a welcoming public space for people to gather. This is where AR comes into play. Through working with the Kusama Network and Spheroid Universe, the two-dimensional surface of the bridge will no longer be static but will instead contain the real-time flow of the Kusama network.

One of Vancouver Biennale’s Senior Curators, Marcello Dantas, views AR as a point of “friction between the virtual world and the material world.  And the virtual art world will be denser and richer than the physical world. There is great creative possibilities for artists to invent unbuildable works, and for curators to enrich the exhibitions with multiple layers of research and reference.”

Integration of AR and blockchain into public art has radical potential. It opens the possibility for a multiplicity of voices, and multiplies approaches towards value-creation and representation in the public realm. This proposition is rooted in the blockchain ethos of transparency and engagement: by working with guest artists to realize this goal, the AR integration of the project will be an embodied experience of digital space that offers an alternative to centralized systems in real time. It exists in the overlap between the public spaces of the city and our private experience within it, and harnesses the power of mobile technology to reflect on the world around us, from our devices, and back towards the city to imagine its alternative futures.

Jessica Angel, Voxel Bridge Project at the Vancouver Biennale, Scaled Model, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.

Jessica Angel, Voxel Bridge Project at the Vancouver Biennale, Scaled Model, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.

Jessica Angel, Voxel Bridge Project at the Vancouver Biennale, Scaled Model, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.

Jessica Angel, Voxel Bridge Project at the Vancouver Biennale, Scaled Model, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.