Meet Juneau Projects
To make some of the 100 Masters come to life lead artists Juneau Projects will be bringing their illustration and tech skills to the project.
Working with cacti breeder Stan Griffin, illustrator Elizabeth Isley, printmaker John Neave, B-girl Hanifa McQueen Hudson and animator Drew Roper, artist duo Ben and Phil will be producing a set of augmented reality animations. Readers will be able to ‘trigger’ images that have been printed in Fused Magazine, on the cover of Area Culture Guide and the Express & Star newspaper by using the Layar app. Juneau Projects explain more about the project…
Can you tell us a bit about how you have approached the 100 Masters project?
The 100 Masters commission is a very unique opportunity for us. It’s a real pleasure to be able to celebrate the creativity of the Black Country, and to meet so many talented people. We are specifically looking at how we can show people the talents of the nominated masters in a visually exciting way. We are working with augmented reality technology to embed additional layers of information, detail and interest within the printed information about the project and the masters.
You are using Augmented Reality – can you explain a little bit about what that means and why you chose this route?
Augmented reality is a developing technology that allows information to be placed, shared and viewed through a mobile device within the real world. ‘Pokemon Go’, the recent smart phone-based game, is a great example of this. Augmented is a very effective way to add multimedia content to print and objects. You download the ‘Layar’ app to your phone, scan a picture or object with the app and then that triggers photos, video sound, 3D models, web links, etc to appear on your screen. We thought it would be a great way to give people an insight into the lives and talents of the Masters.
You have been working with a few of the masters already – can you tell us how you think you might use AR to bring them to life?
We’re currently working on a series of five hand-painted animations. Each animation relates to one of the masters. The animations will be placed as augmented reality content within the upcoming Express & Star feature on the 100 Masters commission. Each animation shows the masters at work, using their unique talents. We think the AR content will complement the written and printed content, allowing the masters to pop out of the paper so that viewers can engage with them in new and innovative ways.
You have a very distinctive style – can you tell us how you would describe what you do and your approach?
We have been working together now for over sixteen years. Our style and approach is really influenced by this fact. Everything we make is part of a conversation between the two of us. It feels very natural for us to involve other people in this conversation too, which is why we like to work with people to produce art work. We are very interested in people’s creativity and the fundamental urge humans have to make things, beyond professional gain. To this end we really like things like folk art, outsider art and vernacular art. We also really enjoy working with technology and seeing how we can use it in creative ways.
People have up until the 30th June to nominate a contemporary master from the Black Country – see how to here.