Ronni Gordon, The Take Magazine, November 18, 2017
New media artist John Craig Freeman uses augmented reality in public art projects to let us see two worlds at once.
It’s hard to escape the debate over the proposed border wall with Mexico, but, if you live in New England, difficult to envision the area where it would go. New media artist John Craig Freeman has brought the U.S.-Mexico border to Boston through a technique called augmented reality (AR), or digital information integrated into the world in real time. His project, Virtual U.S. Mexico Border, enables viewers to be in two different worlds simultaneously. Read the entire article.
Virtual US/Mexico Border, augmented reality public art Opening October 5th–8th, 2017, until October 31st.
Curated by Tanya Toft and Daniela Arriado, Screen City Biennial is produced in partnership with the Stavanger Maritime Museum. The theme of the Biennial, Migrating Stories, reflects topics of migration and post-colonialism, new geographies and ecology, real and virtual voyages, storytelling and narratives traveling through time.
Emerson Urban Arts, Media Art Gallery Opening reception: Wednesday, September 20, 2017, 5:00-7:00 pm Exhibit on view: September 21 – November 18, 2017 25 Avery Street, Boston, MA 02111 Gallery hours: Wednesday-Saturday 2:00-7:00 pm
An installation of virtual reality and augmented reality projects by new media artist John Craig Freeman, Professor of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College, Boston.
John Craig Freeman, Professor in the Department of Visual and Media Arts at Emerson College works in emergent digital media to create virtual and alternative reality installations that address social and political issues of currency. With his work, Freeman examines sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals. He seeks to expand the notion of public art by exploring how digital networked technology is transforming our sense of place. This exhibition features two of his recent subjects interpreted through three different projects: Chinatown Station with Service to Wuhan (2017); Virtual U.S./Mexico Border (2017); and Border Memorial: Frontera de los Muertos (2015).
Produced by Boston Cyberarts, curated by George Fifield Salem Maritime National Historic Site May 27–November 30
The Augmented Landscape, an NEA funded augmented reality exhibit to be held by Boston Cyberarts at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, including work by John Craig Freeman, Kristin Lucas, Will Pappenheimer and Tamiko Thiel, will open to the public on Saturday, May 27, and remain on view through November 30, 2017.
Virtual Russia and Virtual China, geo-located augmented reality public art by John Craig Freeman, uses the historic Salem Custom House as a metaphoric portal, transporting users to two alternative realities created by the artist on location in the cities of Wuhan in Central China and Saint Petersburg Russia last year. The project is meant to evoke the history and contemporary manifestations of globalization, international trade and revolution.
Publications
Ed. Desmond Hui, AR Awakening: X-Realities of Hong Kong Layering, pp54-67, Hang Sang University, Hong Kong, 2019.
Artist Reception: Sat May 6 @ 7pm 701 E 3rd Street | DTLA Gallery Hours Wed – Sun 2pm to 7pm After Hours Appointments email info [at] districtgallery.com
Everywhere but Nowhere, Featuring Augmented Reality Art by
John Craig Freeman, Zenka, Mike French, Lucas Kazanksy, Kevin Mack
Artists employ the techniques and technology of augmented and virtual reality to create interactive works that go beyond the walls of the gallery. The works help us to explore our physical and social environments with vivid, immersive experiences that explode traditional notions of how art is perceived.
Augmented Reality Art Vortex by John Craig Freeman
AR Vortex, acts as an access point where the public can immerse themselves in augmented reality experiences. Not long after its founding in Paris in 1957, the Situationist International developed the idea of the dérive, a kind of open passage walk, or drift. Participants were encouraged to ignore the normal traffic flows and circulations of planned urban developments and instead, moved through a city in a way that followed its moods. The goal was to track the cities emotions, the feeling and atmosphere of a place, to find what they called the plateau tourné, a vortex where forces come together to create strong atmosphere. The public art installation can be seen at the intersection of East 3rd Street, Traction Avenue and Rose Street and throughout DTLA. Viewing Instructions.
Install the free Aurasma Augmented Reality App on your smartphone or tablet. Search JohnCraigFreeman and choose ‘Follow’
Install the free Aurasma Augmented Reality App on your smartphone or tablet. Search JohnCraigFreeman and choose ‘Follow’
AR Vortex #1 and #2, 60in x 33in archival inkjet print, 2017.
A virtual public artwork by John Craig Freeman San José, CA, April 7th–8th, 2017
Produced for exhibition on behalf of ZERO1, in the Paseo de San Antonio Plaza in front of the Hammer Theatre Center in downtown San José, CA during the Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge, Paseo Portal, Securing the Virtual Border acts as an access point where the public can immerse themselves in virtual reality experiences documenting gentrification, the housing shortage, and working class flight in the Bay Area generally, and homelessness, displacement and migration globally.
Instructions: To view the augmented reality work on location in the Paseo de San Antonio Plaza in front of the Hammer Theatre Center in downtown San José, CA, with any late model iPhone, iPad or Android, Install the free Layar augmented reality browser app, http://layar.com and search Geo Layers for ‘Paseo Portal’ or scan this code.
The dispossessed are all around us. Now, with the use of Silicon Valley’s most cutting edge virtual and augmented technology, anyone can see this new reality.
From March 7th to May 30th, 2017, New York University Shanghai Art Gallery is proud to present “Borders: Us and Them,” an exhibition that probes the emergence and transformation of contemporary global borders, and their socio-political implications.
In Border Memorial: Frontera de los Muertos (2016), American public artist John Craig Freeman boldly applies virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to a documentary video shot in Southern Arizona, early 2016. This results in a visual effect of life-sized, three dimensional geometric models of a skeleton effigy, or calaca, floating off into the sky on the US-Mexico border. Calcaca, an archaic Aztec imagery, is here invoked by the artist in commemoration to the thousands of migrant workers who have died along the U.S./Mexico border since the 1990s, in the attempt to cross the desert southwest in search of work and a better life. Freeman resurrects their souls, allowing them to float freely above this border in the virtual, public site. A memorial to those passed, his work also amounts to a vehement critique of American values on the other side of the border, built upon an economy sustained by these very migrant workers.
Virtual Saint Petersburg, John Craig Freeman, geo-located augmented public art produced on location in Saint Petersburg, Russia and relocated virtually in New York City for Moving Image New York, 2017. Video by Xueyi Yang, 2017.
Instructions: To view the work on location at Moving Image, Waterfront New York Tunnel, 269 11th Avenue, Between 27th and 28th Streets in New York City, with any late model iPhone, iPad or Android, Install the free Layar Augmented Reality Browser, http://layar.com and scan this code.
Celebration! A History of Visual Arts in Boulder revisits Boulder’s lively arts past, beginning in the late 19th century and continuing into the present – a long stretch designed for depth and context. As Boulder moves into the future, it seems vital to look back at, explore, and celebrate the city’s vibrant past to create a living archive and thereafter a lasting legacy for future generations.
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Operation Greenrun II, John Craig Freeman, eleven 10′ X 40′ mosaic laser prints on billboards, Highway 93, Rocky Flats, CO, 1991.
Exhibitions take place in 18 galleries city-wide and in Longmont (where many former Boulder artists now reside), from September 29, 2016 to January 15, 2017.
It’s hard to escape the debate over the proposed border wall with Mexico, but, if you live in New England, difficult to envision the area where it would go. New media artist John Craig Freeman has brought the U.S.-Mexico border to Boston through a technique called augmented reality (AR), or digital information integrated into the world in real time. His project, Virtual U.S. Mexico Border, enables viewers to be in two different worlds simultaneously. Read the entire article.
John Craig Freeman 
