Lab Projects
ARTours Clearwater
RediscoverING Clearwater’s Public Art with Augmented Reality
ARTours Clearwater is a self-guided augmented reality (AR) walking tour that takes you to four vibrant murals along a 0.7-mile route through downtown Clearwater. When you reach a mural, open the ARTours Clearwater app and point your device’s camera at the artwork. Then watch as animations, graphics, videos, and audio make the mural come to life. Each mural contains several interactive visual experiences – you will see flowers blooming, alligators walking, spaceships landing, and paint buckets spilling while experiencing the downtown arts district as never before. This experience is free and open to the public. Download the Paint the Town app here on Google Play and here at the iOS store.
Users click the yellow hotspots and watch murals come to life in ARTours Clearwater.
ARTours Clearwater is the result of a multi-year collaboration between the Clearwater Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the University of South Florida’s (USF) Access 3D Lab and Advanced Visualization Center. At the heart of this collaboration is a shared desire to beautify public spaces with innovative arts and culture projects. Since 2018, the CRA has been commissioning memorable placemaking art in key locales with their #muralsofclearwater program. USF joined forces with the CRA in 2019, bringing expertise in digital innovation and app design. They created detailed 3D scans of each mural with powerful Faro Focus lidar scanners, then adding multimedia imagery and animations in Unity – a video game design engine. Along the way, the project won a Best Paper award at the international Web3D conference in Pisa, Italy. It’s also the first augmented reality walking tour in the Tampa Bay region!
USF’s 3D lidar scan of Comuniad (left) was crucial in designing and developing the ARTours Clearwater App (right).
How it works
You should plan around 45 minutes for the tour, but if you have less time available, you can visit individual works of art. The app contains interactive map that shows the location of each mural. Once you arrive at a mural, open the app, tap the yellow hotspots, and watch the mural come to life before your eyes.
Map of Clearwater's downtown murals
The murals
Comunidad
ARTours Clearwater adds movement, interactivity, and music to Comunidad, a mural showing a communal women's dance.
Comunidad is a celebration of cultural diversity, and shows empowered, united women who form a network and community. Uruguayan artists Florencia Duran and Camilo Nunez used sketches of real women to inform their murals and portraits. The animations are designed to surprise and delight audiences, while the longer montages, videos and animated sequences add depth to the narratives of portraiture, female empowerment, and dancing.
View the making of the mural HERE.
Artist: Camilo Nuñez and Florencia Durán
colectivolicuado.com | Colectivo Licuado Facebook
Completed: December 2018
Location: 28 North Garden Avenue, Clearwater, FL, USA
100 Years Before J. Cole
100 Years Before J. Cole features a story about Tampa's railways and orange groves that encopmasses the region's past and present.
Back in 1885, the construction of the Orange Belt Railway changed Florida’s citrus groves forever. The same year, modern bicycles were put into production. 100 Years Before J. Cole is located alongside the Pinellas Trail, which follows the original railway route and is today a popular bike trail. Artists Michelle Sawyer and Tony Krol celebrate this juxtaposition of history in their mural, which is also inspired by J. Cole’s song “1985,” about how things evolve and change over time.
View the making of the mural HERE.
Artist: Tony Krol and Michelle Sawyer
illsol.com | Illsol Facebook |
Location: 620 Drew St, Clearwater, FL, USA
Completed: December 2018
After a While
Florida's iconic alligator comes to life in this interactive mural experience located on the west side of the building at 710 Franklin St.
After a While is a whimsical painting of a woman and her pet alligator out for a walk. Santa Rosa, California-based artist MJ Lindo-Lawyer is a nationally recognized muralist known for her depictions of multi-cultural women alongside animal companions, evoking fantastical worlds.
Artists: MJ Lindo-Lawyer and Joshua Lawyer
mjlindoart.com | MJ Lindo Art Facebook |
joshualawyer.com | Joshua Llawyer Artist Facebook |
Completed: August 2021
Location: 315 South East Avenue, Clearwater, FL, USA
Ikebana – 710 Franklin St.
Ikebana 's flowers grow and bloom in a colorful burst complete with hummingbirds, bees, and bubbles, for an interactive and playful experience.
Ikebana depicts an ikebana flower arrangement. Unites States based artist, DAAS, is a contemporary artist, internationally recognized for his vibrant, engaging paintings and murals. DAAS’ artwork utilizes a combination of abstract and representational imagery, driven by a distinct color palette and design aesthetic which incorporates bold shapes and organic forms saturated in vivid colors, to create larger-than-life artworks focused on bringing a sense of beauty and inspiration into the surrounding space.
Artist: DAAS’
artist-daas.com | DAAS Facebook |
Completed: June 2021
Location: 703 Franklin Street, Clearwater, FL, USA
FURTHER READING
Rediscovering Downtown Clearwater’s Art Scene with Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality for Digital Placemaking: Public Art in Clearwater, Florida
Downtown Clearwater Comes to Life with new Augmented Reality App
Credits
City of Clearwater
Community Redevelopment Agency
Department of Cultural Affairs
Department of Public Communications
University of South Florida
Access 3D Lab
Advanced Visualization Center