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John Craig Freeman

Upgrade! San Francisco is proud to present two events with Boston-based media artist and activist John Craig Freeman at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. San Francisco

2-day Workshop: “Making Art with Augmented Reality” – Register HERE

Saturday March 31st & Sunday April 1st, 11am–5pm both days

Learn how to place digital 3D objects in real physical space (virtually) forever. Augments can be created in any scale for any location in the world and viewed through the camera and screen of mobile devices. This workshop provides a hands-on and in-depth introduction to AR for participants to make giant artworks, public interventions and personal or historical memorials. This is a beginner to advanced workshop. No previous programming or design experience is required. All participants in John’s workshop will have their finished digital augment and a 17″ x 22″ color print automatically added to the current SOMArts exhibition “I Am Crime: Art On the Edge of Law“.

Free Public Talk: “Emergent Technology as Art Practice and Public Art as Intervention”
Thursday, March 29th, 7-7:30PM meet and greet; 7:30-8:30PM lecture + questions

John Craig Freeman is a public artist with over twenty years of experience using emergent technologies to produce large-scale public works at sites where the forces of globalization are impacting the lives of individuals in local communities. John is currently an Associate Professor of New Media, at Emerson College (Boston) in the Department of Visual and Media Arts and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, at UC San Diego.

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Casey Reas at The Creators Project: San Francisco 2012 Arts and Tech Festival | Artist Talk and Drawing Workshop

Please forgive the poor quality of the photo above. Took it with my phone and it’s a bit dark. I will be posting more on The Creators Project (I actually took my fancy pants camera and will be downloading more photos). For now, I wanted to share my favorite experience at The Creators Project – Casey Reas!

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This past year, I’ve tried to commit to learning Processing and the basics (we’re talking absolute basics of Java Script via Code Year). In earlier posts, I’ve expressed the desire to learn programming because it provides me with insight on the artist-technologist’s creative process and the problem solving they must work through. Reading through the book, Form + Code: In Design, Art, and Architecture, has been informative on the use of creative coding to create visual and interactive art works. Over the weekend, I made my way to Fort Mason for The Creators Project (CP).

Walking up to Casey Reas and introducing myself to him before his artist talk and drawing workshop was, by far, the best part of The CP weekend. I’m trying to imagine a Justin Bieber fan. Whatever emotions they might feel, that’s probably how I felt when I met Mr. Rheas (minus the crying and screaming). Yes, I’m a huge fan and the fact that this particular art hero is a sweet guy – total icing on the cake.

It’s been extremely busy these past few weeks but I will definitely post more photos of the weekend and share some thoughts on the overall exhibition and artworks I experienced at CP! More to follow…