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Uninterrupted Views: Billboards Blended Into Their Natural Backdrops

03 Mar

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

desert X billboards 1

For just a split-second as you zoom by in your vehicle, you’ll catch the perfect alignment of 2D imagery on a billboard and the real, three-dimensional mountains in the background, eliminating advertising to refocus your attention on what’s really important. Set along Gene Autry Trail in California as part of Desert X, an outdoor exhibition of site-specific art installed across the Coachella Valley, the billboard series by Jennifer Bolande demonstrates an unusual form of camouflage.

desert X main

desert X billboards 2

The installation is particularly effective for the close placement of the billboards, which are glimpsed in quick succession. Real and artificial environments blend together in an illusion that’s particularly effective on a bright, sunny afternoon when the sky is at its bluest. The work is specifically made to be experienced from a passing car, drawing inspiration from an old Burma Shave ad that used sequential placement to create a message that could only be read from a moving vehicle.

desert x

‘Visible Distance/Second Sight’ is particularly effective in this desert environment, where most structures are low-lying and there are no towering trees. This setting ordinarily makes billboards pop out from the landscape even more than they would in a city.

circle of land and sky philip k smith

curves and zigzags

Other striking installations in the Desert X series include ‘The Circle of Land and Sky’ by Phillip K. Smith III, a composition of 300 geometric reflectors angled at 10 degrees to engage with the surrounding Sonoran Desert, and ‘Curves and Zigzags’ by Claudia Comte, a series of scuptural freestanding walls.

All photos by Lance Gerber Studio

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

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Posted in Creativity

NO AD Augmented Reality App Replaces Billboards with Art

27 Sep

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

NO AD APP 1

Subway commuters are inundated with advertisements on virtually every surface they come across along their daily journey, from the stairs leading to each platform to the passenger cars themselves. Places where a captive audience will stand around staring at the walls are an advertiser’s feast, but not everyone wants that kind of consumerism shoved down their throats every day. Enter ‘NO AD,‘ an augmented reality app that allows you to replace those ads with art.

NO AD APP 2

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Created by The Subway Art Blog and The Heavy Projects, which got dozens of artists to participate, the app for smartphones and tablets enables users to look at their environment in an altered way. Hold up your device and the ad that’s right in front of you will transform into a work of art before your eyes.

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NO AD APP 5

Available for free on iOS and Android, NO AD works with dozens of ads, turning your commute into a ‘curated art experience. You can even watch a short film. The app developers plan to update the featured art frequently to keep up with the frantic pace of urban advertising.

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While viewing the world through an electronic device isn’t exactly ideal, especially if hundreds of commuters started clogging up the subway stations to stand around holding their tablets at arms’ length, it’s a neat example of high-tech DIY Urbanism.

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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Billboards offer tourists a glimpse of smog-free Hong Kong

01 Sep

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With worsening air quality spoiling the view, authorities in Hong Kong have come up with a novel solution for snap-happy tourists – giant panoramic billboards showing what the city would look like if there weren’t so much pollution, for them to take pictures of. The initiative follows what has been dubbed China’s ‘Airpocalypse’, earlier this year where pollution hit levels 25 times those considered safe in the USA.

News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Posted in Uncategorized

Useful Billboards? Advertisements Extend Into Urban Space

08 Jun

[ By Delana in Design & Guerilla Ads & Marketing. ]

smart ideas for smarter cities awning billboard

At its best, advertising is entertaining, even useful. At its worst, it is invasive, abrasive, and perhaps even offensive. IBM’s new campaign from Ogilvy France skirts the line, featuring public objects that are useful but which somewhat invade the urban space.

ogilvy france bench billboard

The Smart Ideas for Smarter Cities campaign includes three billboards that extend out from city walls and into the urban environment. One is an awning of sorts, providing a dry space for residents to get out of the rain or a bit of shade to get out of the sun.

ibm ramp billboard

Another is a small bench which gives weary pedestrians the chance to sit down for a moment. The last is a ramp that covers a portion of a small staircase, letting cyclists or luggage-wheeling residents take an easier route.

The campaign is meant to inspire viewers to think differently about their cities and how some elements could be tweaked to be more useful for residents. It’s something of a risk, however, since this invasion of the urban environment may not be welcomed by residents who think that advertising is already too ubiquitous on city streets.