apple taps carsten höller, nick cave and more for interactive AR ‘art sessions’ across the globe

apple has opened registration for a series of new art-based augmented reality experiences around the globe. called [AR]T walk, participants will be able to experience digital pieces from contemporary artists in-store, and out and about in select cities, brought to life in physical spaces using AR. featured artists include nick cave, cao fei, john giorno, carsten höller, pililotti rist, nathalie djurberg and hans berg, which have been co-curated with new museum.

pipilotti rist’s ‘international liquid finger prayer’ invites participants to chase a shimmering form through global cities
cover image: nick cave reimagines his iconic ‘soundsuits’ on the today at apple [AR]t walk

[AR]T works will connect participants to public spaces such as london’s trafalgar square, san francisco’s yerba buena gardens and new york’s grand army plaza in central park. guests can experience rist’s ‘international liquid finger prayer’ as it bounces, taunts and sings, while giorno’s ‘now at the dawn of my life’ is a rainbow journey of homespun wisdom, and ‘through’ by höller takes viewers through a portal into a world with no perspective.

every apple store worldwide will offer the chance to experience nick cave’s ‘amass,’ an interactive installation

the [AR]T walk will comprise AR installations placed as visual layers atop san francisco, new york, hong kong, london, paris and tokyo. to create the sessions, apple invited the new museum to select artists to participate in the experiential project, which is free to the public. the new project also includes in-store sessions that teach the basics of creating AR using swift playgrounds.

in ‘this is it,’ djurberg and berg take attendees on an outlandish adventure to a seemingly hollow tree hiding magical creatures worthy of a digital fairy tale.

visitors can go into any apple store worldwide and experience artist nick cave’s interactive AR piece ‘amass’ using a new [AR]T viewer in the apple store app. through the screen of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, viewers will be asked to collect glowing, floating icons, described as ‘ikon elements,’ to help create a ‘universe of positive energy right in the middle of an apple store.’

john giorno’s ‘now at the dawn of my life’ features homespun wisdom against the backdrop of their city.

‘today at apple offers a window into the creative arts made possible by our products and customers,’ said deirdre o’brien, apple’s senior vice president of retail + people. ‘we hope attendees are inspired by the incredible ar creations in the [AR]t walk and in-store installation, and we can’t wait to see what our visitors learn to create in the [AR]t lab.’

the [AR]T sessions start on aug. 10 — those who want to attend can register on apple’s today page.

with ‘through,’ carsten höller takes viewers through a portal into a world with no perspective

new york artist and educator sarah rothberg teaches today at apple attendees how to create their own AR experiences using swift playgrounds

cao fei’s ‘trade eden’ is part fun-house part automated factory, testing the viewer’s dexterity for packaged goods while imagining new useless machines