Opening: Saturday, April 9th 2011 – Friday, May 13th 2011
Location: Surry Hills, Sydney (and beyond)
The Sydney showing of (Un)seen Sculptures is being held as part of the Surry Hills Festival; with works being exhibited at sites throughout the suburb of Surry Hills (and one off-site work in the Royal Botanic Gardens).
Instructions
1. Download the latest version of the Layar Reality Browser
If you have a iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, you can get it from iTunes; if you have an Android, you can get it from the Android Market; if you have a compatible Nokia (C7, C6-01, E7, N8 or N97), you can get it from the Ovi Store.
If you already have Layar installed on your phone, make sure you upgrade it to the latest version (5.0). If you have a version earlier than 4.0, you won’t be able to view (Un)seen Sculptures. You can still potentially view the works with Layar 4.0, but for the best viewing experience, get 5.0.
2. Print out the map
Most of the artworks will only be visible at specific locations, so you’ll need the map to find them. You’ll find a printable PDF of the map here. (If you turn up to the Festival without a map, don’t worry. You can always go an information booth at one of the Festival venues and pick one up.)
3. Wear some comfortable shoes and bring headphones
The works are spread over 20 sites throughout Surry Hills and Moore Park, so you’ll have to do a bit of walking if you want to see them all. You might also have to cross some busy streets, so be careful doing that.
And don’t forget your headphones. Four of the works in the show – Virtual Native, Sex and Death Bufo Colony, Portuguese Legendary Cocks and The Information Virus – have audio associated with them, and you’ll obviously need headphones to hear it properly. In some cases, the audio will play automatically when get within a certain distance of the artwork; in other cases, you can touch the work and press a Listen button to hear it.
4. Go to the locations and open up Layar
When you arrive at your first location, open up the Layar app and search for unseen sculptures. A layer (that’s what they call a set of works on this app) called Unseen Sculptures should appear. Tap on the blue arrow next to its listing to begin experiencing the artworks.
5. Touch the art
If you want to learn more about any artwork you are viewing, “touch” the artwork on your phone screen, and the title & artist’s name will appear. They’ll also be a button entitled About This Work that you can press to read the artist’s statement.
And finally…
The works need to be downloaded from the web before being shown to you, so there may be a short wait for some of them. Please be patient. Also, we recommend that you only open up Layar when you are at a location and viewing a work. The rest of the time, it’s best just to keep the app closed. If you have any problems seeing the works at any point, try closing the Layar then pressing the Launch button again (or, if you’re on Layar 4.0, press the info button, then press Refresh).
Sex and Death Bufo Colony in Royal Botanic Gardens
In addition to the small colony of bufo toads in Shannon Reserve, there is a larger one – the “original” colony of this subspecies of Bufo Virtanus – in the grassed area in front of the glass pyramid that houses the Sydney Tropical Centre in the Royal Botanic Gardens. To see and interact with this colony, do a search for bufo colonies in Layar.