Alumni Art Spotlight: An Augmented Reality Exhbition
Interpret Creative & Performing Arts Festival
School of Creative Arts, University of the Fraser Valley
April 2024

Overview:
Invited to curate the hallway exhibition spaces as part of the University of the Fraser Valley's Interpret Creative & Performing Arts Festival, I developed an augmented reality exhibition that reconnected visitors with the work of two Visual Arts alumni through the university's archives.

The project paired archival student works with recent artworks by the artists, inviting visitors to experience the evolution of their practices across two decades. Using augmented reality, visitors could move beyond the physical exhibition to discover additional artworks, artist biographies, process documentation and contextual information, transforming the hallway into an immersive, self-guided gallery experience.

Rather than presenting archival works as static records, the exhibition sought to reveal artistic practice as something living and evolving, highlighting the connections between early experimentation and contemporary practice.

Curatorial Approach:
Drawing from the Visual Arts Archives, I selected early works by Laura Dutton and Lorena Krause and worked collaboratively with each artist to develop a contemporary retrospective of their practice. Together we gathered recent artworks, artist statements and biographical material, creating two parallel narratives that traced each artist's journey from student to established practitioner.

A custom augmented reality experience allowed visitors to virtually step into expanded exhibitions, explore additional bodies of work and encounter each artist's evolving interests through their own words and images. Physical labels and wayfinding elements guided visitors through the experience while connecting the gallery space with its digital counterpart.