The augmented reality installation AR[t]chive offers a playful glimpse into an interactive digital archive as an embodied experience, using the artworks of Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau as a starting point. After putting on the Microsoft HoloLens 2, visitors can explore, create, and play within a mixed reality space. Here, digital data—coexisting as texts, photographs, and terminologies – interacts with the physical environment of the exhibition space. By approaching the AR objects and grabbing them with your hand, you can move them around, rearrange them in space, or enlarge the images. The immersive technology of the AR smart glasses enables a user experience that fluidly shifts between the physical and virtual worlds.

This work represents the first functional version of a project currently being developed for the Archive of Digital Data (ADA), founded by Oliver Grau in 1999 (www.digitalartarchive.at). Funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). Developed within the framework of Infrastructures for Digital Arts Teaching and Research in Higher Education (LeFo), Krems (AT).

LeFo Project Leader: Oliver Grau LeFo Team – University of Art and Design Linz (AT): Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Tiago Martins LeFo Team – University of Applied Arts Vienna (AT): Ruth Schnell, Martin Kusch Software Development: Tiago Martins Data Sorting and Scanning: Lea Schnell, Barbara Jazbec, Julian Stadon