Heather Cole's creative art displayed in Kochel
Heather Cole, lecturer in digital arts at Penn State Erie, made a piece of art that is way more interactive than your average art piece in a museum.
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Cole created a fabric painting, “Don’t Give up the Ship,” that has an image of the U.S Brig Niagara, the flagship from the Battle of Lake Erie. She embedded the painting with a computer code that allows viewers make the work come to life. When using the Blippar app, viewers can watch the ship move thanks to augmented reality.
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“I work with a lot of different art forms,” Cole said. “I also work with a lot of software. I had been searching for a way to merge those influences and bring in different elements to make a truly interactive piece.”
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Cole’s work was commissioned by Erie Arts and Culture and TEDxErie. Her painting was used as the background for the TEDx program at Erie’s Warner Theatre. At this event, the backdrop doubled as a photo booth. Cole left space in the middle for the speakers to stand and painted the Niagara to the left. On the right she added a digital swirl created with the help of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Black Ink software.
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She was able to develop the first draft over two weekends. It took four more weeks to embed the augmented reality portion. Using the Blippar app, viewers watch the Niagara move to the right, then rises and lifted by the wave.
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“In my artwork, each of us is the ship. We will have our trials, and our sails may feel like they are on fire, and the tide may try to smack us down, but as long as we have each other to help raise us up, we will weather any storm together,” Cole said in her TEDxErie talk.
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When the event ended, Cole saw another use for her work. She and Erie Arts and Culture gifted it to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. It is hung currently in the upper floor of Kochel Center walking into the library. According the Cole, the AR still works and she often sees people playing with it.
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The AR may stop working and the technology may be outdated in the future, but the painting will still serve its purpose.