Almost a year ago we told you about (Un)seen Sculptures, and Australian augmented reality art exhibit at the Surry Hills Festival featuring 3D models created by 13 artists from across the globe. The digital exhibit returns again this year, presented by dLux MediaArts as part of Sydney Art Month, and is currently seeking submissions from artists.

If you’re not sure what a mobile 3D augmented reality art show is, (Un)seen Sculptures describes itself as “a sculpture walk composed entirely of virtual 3D works that have been ‘placed’ at specific geographic locations.” Using Layar, visitors to the exhibit can view the sculptures (and any accompanying media) with their smartphone.

To submit your 3D digital artwork, you’d better act fast, the deadline is this Saturday, February 25th. Essentially, anything that works on Layar should be accepted, but make sure to keep models below 5,000 polygons and, in general, keep any files to a low size to avoid slow load times.

Submissions should include the following:

• Artist name.
• Title of work.
• Any additional subtitles to be displayed in Layar.
• 200 dpi image of the artwork (for printed promotional purposes).
• An artist statement of short description of the work.
• Link to the artist’s website.
• 3D files of the artwork.
• Any accompanying media files.

Any submissions or questions should be sent to filmcement[at]gmail.com. For full descriptions of requirements and guidelines for submission, see this PDF. We’re looking forward to seeing what makes its way into the show this year!

Layar Pioneers John Goto and Matthew Leach recently brought to our attention a Layar Vision project which they created to help enhance the artwork of 18th century artist Joseph Wright in his hometown of Derby, UK.

The artist and developer tandem teamed with Derby’s Museum and Art Gallery, as well as the Royal Crown Derby Museum to help celebrate Wright’s work and relationship with the famous Derby porcelain factory. Now anyone who visits the museums and views Wright’s work can simultaneously view related porcelain sculptures placed into the artwork digitally with Layar.

“The beauty of feature tracking is that the overlay can be exactly positioned” says Goto, who along with Leach used Layar Vision’s feature tracking technology to create the artistic montages.

“QR codes have in the past been tried in galleries to link viewers to additional information, but it is a cumbersome, rather un-visual process,” he adds. “Feature tracking is primarily visual, and therefore all the more appropriate for engaging an art gallery audience.”

For examples, you can visit Goto’s website which shows you the various works of art with their accompanying porcelain sculptures. Pull up the images of Wright’s paintings and scan them with Layar to view the montages created by Goto and Leach.

For as long as Layar has been around, you’ve probably associated us with the layers of information which you can view over your world using the Layar Browser. Recently, we’ve introduced you to our new Layar Vision technology which allows you unlock interactive AR experiences by scanning images in things like magazines, posters and product packaging.

Now we’re taking things another step further.

For the last several months we’ve been working behind the scenes on a whole new project, completely separate from Layar as you know it. We’ve spent lots of time testing this idea with our private beta group, tweaking it until we felt it was just right and in the perfect state to release to the world.

Today, we are ready to show you what we’ve been working on. Introducing: Stiktu.

Stiktu is a whole new way of using augmented reality to be creative and express yourself on top of objects in the real world. It’s the app to leave your mark, share your favorite things, rate items you like and speak your mind.

With Stiktu, you can add text, images, stickers and sketches to objects around you by scanning them with your phone. Then anyone who scans that item will see your post directly on top of it, no matter where they are in the world. It works great with flat, well-lit items like posters, magazines and product packaging - the same items you see used with Layar Vision.

From the very start we always wanted to give this powerful technology to people so they could use it to their own benefit. With Stiktu we created an app that does exactly that. Now everybody can publish augmented reality content on anything they care about.

The app is now available to download in the iTunes App Store and Android Market. As we gradually roll out, the app is currently available only in Europe. To be specific, users in The Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France can download Stiktu right now.

We will have more to share about Stiktu in the coming weeks, and the rest of the world will be able to download the app very soon. Until then, we hope you take a moment to download Stiktu and check out what we’ve been working on.

To keep updated on all things Stiktu, you can find updates at the Stiktu blog, or follow Stiktu on Twitter and Facebook.

Throughout the summer, we’ve covered some of the highlights of Bruce Sterling’s Layar-sponsored AR design class at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

As all good things must come to an end, so has this class, but not without some impressive final student projects! Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be sharing videos of these projects as well as footage from last week’s class presentations with Layar strategist Gene Becker making a guest appearance to offer comments and feedback. You can read all of our posts about the AR Design class here.

This first video is for a concept called “enlitenar”, and it features students Ryan D’Orazi and Jennifer Rosetto (as well as a cameo from Bruce Sterling and his wife, author and filmmaker Jasmina Tešanović), who use Augmented Reality to cross over to the spiritual dimension.

In addition to this otherworldly concept video, the students created an enlitenar layer (currently still in testing) with Hoppala that uses audio and visual elements to facilitate a connection between physical reality and the invisible forces that influence everyday life.

If that sounds a bit heavy for you, we’ll leave it at this: if you’ve ever wanted to see Bruce Sterling perform an initiation ceremony dressed as a cyberpunk cult leader (goodness knows WE have), watch this video!

enlitenar: augmented spirituality reality from RYAN DORAZI on Vimeo.

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As the summer continues, so does the Layar-sponsored augmented reality design class being taught in California to eager design students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. To give you a closer look at the class, here’s another video into which you can sink your teeth.

Anyone who knows Layar and follows this blog knows our outspoken co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald gives talks all over the globe on a somewhat regular basis. However, you may not have seen a talk quite like this from Maarten before.

To kick off the design class’ semester, Maarten provided an introduction of Layar, the company’s history and where it stands today, some examples of the platform’s capabilities as well as a look into the future and where Layar thinks augmented reality is headed.

So check out the video below of Maarten’s talk. It’s a quick snapshot that summarizes many key and interesting points surrounding Layar and augmented reality.