CITY’S FIRST AUGMENTED REALITY-POWERED ARTWORK UNVEILED

In a groundbreaking fusion of art and technology, Amritanshu Agrawal and Priyanka Gupta, founders of a multiple award-winning microbrewery, in collaboration with established visual and spoken-word artist, curator, and artpreneur Angad B Sodhi, unveiled Tricity’s first-ever Augmented Reality (AR) powered artwork, promising an unparalleled immersive experience. This pioneering endeavor marks a significant milestone in the city’s cultural landscape, ushering in a new era of artistic expression. Through the lens of AR, viewers will be transported into a realm where imagination knows no bounds as digital elements seamlessly intertwine with the physical world, blurring lines between reality and fantasy.
“We had been searching for ideas for this space at our microbrewery, to bring a dimension of art to it, something out of the box, arresting, and at the same time an engaging piece that would spark a conversation and have longevity to it. Angad’s vision was in sync with ours,” say Priyanka and Amritanshu. In their passionate endeavor to stay ahead of the curve – they are the first to open a microbrewery and a European-inspired bean-to-bar cafe, the first to set the trend of craft beer and authentic gourmet chocolate in the Tricity – Priyanka and Amritanshu are all set to creatively charge the artspace with Angad’s AR artwork. Brimming with ideas, Angad feels art as a medium is changing in how we experience it. “Nowadays, we experience art on-screen more than anything else, and this allows us the space to create more tangible stories. My aim is to create stories you can feel, be part of your communication and give you direct tangible benefits,” he says.
DECODING THE CONCEPT: THE STORY BEHIND THE ARTWORK

“Speaking from our perspective, as a legacy brand, the artwork not only had to communicate the core and story of our microbrewery, but it had to play an instrumental role in brand building and community mobilization. As first movers in our industry, and also as art lovers, our endeavor has always been to give this city something exclusive, impactful, and trendsetting. So when Angad shared his concept of this beautiful convergence of art and technology, we knew this was it. It was transformative; it has the power to scale and transcend physical boundaries into a space where this piece of art acts as a narrator, a storyteller, and connector,” says Priyanka. For Angad, the process was instant and organic. A food writer in the past, he had a fair idea of what goes into beer. “Beer is made up of two important ingredients, hops, and grains/barley, and the third is water. Classical Greek writers credit Egyptians with having invented beer, and that’s how we developed these interesting characters around the ingredients, and added Egyptian hieroglyphs, rendering a feeling of being inside a pharaoh’s tomb with references to the Egyptian god and goddess of beer Osiris and Nephthys,” says Angad. The artwork has been created and painted on 8 by 8 feet wooden boards. The AR effect is activated by scanning the image, just like a QR code. The AR brings to life fun and quirky characters of happy ‘Hoppy’ and his friends who live in the world of beer, floating on the river Nile, emerging from ancient Egypt to where we are today.

THE VISION putting a spotlight on this art is about changing the perspective of people and investing in a long-term strategy of telling the right story through it. Businesses can seriously grow their value by leveraging the right kind of art, feels Priyanka. A transformative artwork, “with AR, one can create a whole new dimension/layer on top of any physical work introducing you to virtual reality and total immersion in the metaverse. This is the future, a life in the metaverse with invisible buttons and virtual reality glasses for access. At the moment, smart phones and user-friendly smart apps like Instagram or SparkAR act as a bridge to this experience by integrating their camera with your phone camera to scan and read it as a QR code,” explains Angad, who is also a strong advocate of the ‘Support the Living Artists’ movement. “With AR at its heart, it’s an exciting incorporation of art and tech. So drop by, click, scan, and get ready to be surprised,” adds Priyanka.