The guiding impulses of A phosphene rifts first sprawled out from an interest in augmented reality as a method of making that could seep, leak, or breach through a physical boundary:
Rift. Noun: an opening made by splitting, cleaving, etc.; fissure; cleft; chink.
Rift. Verb: to burst open; split.
The mutant materiality and particular tangibilities in the spontaneous creation unique to AR brought us to the mysterious and mythic nature of Japanese folklore: Kaiju ('giant creature") and Yōkai ("strange apparition").
These references mainly just served as a larger catalyst for the nature of fantastic things to just materialize out of nowhere. There are rifts to be deepend in what we make of the real world, where moments of grief, discovery, and healing suddenly emerge.
That, as well as an interest in both science fiction and mythology.
Here, the light of these phenomena is interpreted through the lenses of our trusty smartphones before entering our eyes. We liked the idea that these happenings are first mediated before revealing themselves to us: A spawning of light indirectly.
Phosphene. phos·phene ˈfäs-ˌfēn. : an impression of light that occurs without light entering the eye.
And so it goes, as so your walk begins
Site 1: Tristan Sauer at Academy of Lions
A metallic, stone-like specter reaches their arms outward, curling their fingers underneath a spinning heart as if it’s prepared to catch it: A provisional offer of healing extended outward to you, alluding to the comfort of a physical embrace.
Site 2: Lauren Warrington at Hẻm Social
A canopy of metal texture serves as the mediating structure framing an assortment of prairie hares. Set underneath the backdrop of an infinite sunset, Somewhere in Mid-Hyperspace recreates an afterlife in digital space. Here, grief might find some shape for the departed as a warren of rabbits; solace both in their frolicking, as well as their slumber.
Site 3: Soft Turns at Good Fork
SOFT ERROR unveils a constellation of cosmic rays as forged in the errors of closed-lens DSLR camera sensors inadvertently perceiving typically invisible energy particles. As digital debris, this growing collection of images float within an immaterial space as your phone lens mirrors the lens of its accidental making.
Site 4: Megan Feheley at Good Fork
Megan Feheley is using AR to expand upon home-grown tobacco plant sprouts: Translating them from leaf to birch bark biting, from pattern to beadwoven panel, from small beading to large vinyl, from physical weaving to digital unweaving. Exploring the dynamic between the incorporeal / corporeal form as a method of preservation and speculation, the beadwork dances and the screen invites us to join in.
Site 5: Hiba Ali at St. Clarens Parkette
The warmth of the cutest star seeks to reassure a comfort amidst grief. Its lullabies for tears can only be heard in augmented reality, hereby somewhere up in celestial space otherwise unreachable to our physical forms.