ARTour Basel vs paper trees

Welcome to the ARTour Basel, a journey between the digital and the real world that brings art to life in new and innovative ways. [How it works] The tour takes you past 11 augmented reality (AR) works of art that can be viewed at different locations in the city of Basel. Use your smartphone and this app for the tour. You should plan around 90 minutes for the whole tour. If you have less time available, you can also visit individual works of art. You can see where the works of art are located on the interactive map here in the app. Once you are there, you can discover the works of art using your smartphone camera. [The artworks] The works of art were created by national and international artists especially for the ARTour. The exhibition was curated by Sabine Himmelsbach, director of the HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel. You can find out more about the individual artists and the works of art by clicking on the various locations on the map. [Augmented reality art] The artworks become visible as digital objects in a real space using augmented reality technology. Augmented reality is a virtual extension of the real world. It creates entirely new possibilities for art by turning physical laws upside down and rethinking dimensions, whilst making full use of interactivity. Art can thus take place anywhere and innovatively brings the city to life.

The tree, an important element in biodiversity, is placed in relation to paper consumption in the artwork. Augmented reality is used to create virtual linden trees (Tilia cordata) and paper stacks. The paper stacks show the relationship of the tree as a producer of raw materials. For the global climate, the consumption of wood – for a daily product like paper – plays an important role, because every 5th tree is felled just for paper. In Germany, 55 kg of graphic paper, such as copy paper, is consumed per person and per year. The 12 virtual trees are therefore only enough for the annual needs of about 60 persons. With AR, paper trees visualises the connection between nature's resources and our own consumption in a new way. paper trees | Eva-Maria Lopez in cooperation with Maija Demitere and ASTE.gallery 3D-Art: Līga Vēliņa Technical realisation: Patrick Borgeat Web version: Rogier Jupijn Translations: Ulrike Streubel App: ART+ Funded within the framework of the project funding programme for media art of the UNESCO City of Media Arts Karlsruhe 2022.