Daniel Leighton Art + AR vs Unsettling Grounds

Daniel Leighton is a contemporary fine artist who merged his painting, filmmaking, storytelling and technology backgrounds by incorporating augmented reality into his iPad paintings.  Daniel’s work has been featured by Timothy Potts, Director of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Bryan Barcena Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Nicholas Barlow, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Victoria and Albert Museum in London, where he recently spoke, the LA Center for Digital Art (LACDA), Technarte, the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art (SLOMA) and more. Having Crohn’s Disease since birth, Leighton faced his mortality from a very young age. Countless invasive procedures, hospitalizations and surgeries helped drive him to dive deep into a lifelong quest to understand the workings of his body and his emotions. He creates emotional portraits with simple lines and brilliant colors to capture complex states of the human psyche, while exploring the possibilities of technology and human emotion being harnessed for the greater good. When viewed through this app, Daniel Leighton Art+AR, his paintings come to life as a narrative accompanying the painting; using animation, film and particle systems to further capture a feeling and story. One example is the painting "On Trial" where anger is evident in the faces and pointing fingers of the characters and the moon looking down at the scene has a single tear. When viewed through Leighton's augmented reality app, the painting catches fire and the only way to put out the fire is to tap on the moon which begins to cry therefore putting out the flames with the tears. This piece is about anger in the form of blame and judgment, and shows how when feelings are expressed, anger subsides. Another example is a painting called "A Substance Called Understanding." Through the augmented reality and interactivity (tapping) the room fills up with hearts and the sound of many, layered voices saying "I love you". Leighton has a total of 11 paintings which incorporate augmented reality. If you like this app, please leave us a review or rating as it will help us get more people to see it. Also, please share it with your friends. Thank you!

Unsettling Grounds is a pilot platform showcasing experimental and monumental works by Black, Brown, Indigenous & rural artists. An augmented reality exhibition located in the Charlottesville Woolen Mills, Unsettling Grounds is an interactive storytelling tool. Using this app audiences will uncover hidden histories of lesser-known struggles for freedom. Monuments are missing; voices are silenced. Unsettling Grounds makes visible and audible the hidden past. The project makes possible place-based artworks in the Charlottesville area through support from The National Endowment for the Arts, Albemarle County, Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, Virginia Humanities, and The Memory Project at the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute of Democracy.