The Augmented Reality Exhibition

If you know Nottinghamshire, then there is no doubt that you will know of Sherwood Forest. The woodland area is a National Nature Reserve, site of special scientific interest and a protected area of conservation.

Rebecca Smith of Urban Projections was commissioned by Inspire Youth Arts to created eight artworks based around the local flora of Sherwood Forest. Each piece would then be further enhanced by an additional Augmented Reality layer when viewed through a smart device. With additional funding secured from the Miner2Major project, the process began with a series of co-creation workshops with young people from the Mansfield and Nottinghamshire area.

In collaboration with local sculptor Phil Neal, the workshops saw the young people create sculptures of a particular flora, local to the Sherwood Forest area, from various recycled materials. Carefully constructed from corks, bottle tops and wood, these sculptures included artistic interpretations of an ox-eye daisy, a dandelion, foxgloves, a porcini mushroom and a tansy.

With help from Nottingham University's Mixed Reality Lab, each of the sculptures were painstakingly photographed and scanned to transform them into digital 3D models through the technique of photogrammetry. With the models created and scanned, the artworks on display in this exhibition were created.