If you’ve been keeping up with us here at Layar, you probably know that one of the core visions we have been discussing is space.

Space is an opportunity, as we see it. Layar co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald recently explained how Layar hopes to “democratize” space in his interview with UNTETHER.tv. Layar strategist and evangelist Gene Becker also recently shared his thoughts about how augmented reality is creating new perspectives on public space.

“When you look at who the true AR enthusiasts are, who is doing the cutting edge creative work in AR today, itÌs artists, activists and digital humanities geeks. Their projects explore and challenge the ideas of ownership and exclusivity of physical space, and the flowing irreversibility of time. They are starting to see AR as the emergence of a new construction of reality, where the physical and digital are no longer distinct but instead are irreversibly blended.” - Gene Becker

This vision takes inspiration from the use of public space by activists, street artists and other groups that take advantage of public space to share their ideas and encourage discussion.

One such artist, Candy Chang, was recently interviewed by Juxtapoz magazine, which covers art and culture. The article has circulated around the Layar office today as a bit of Friday inspiration, so we thought we’d share some highlights here on the blog.

Chang discusses what drives her and inspires her to create some of her well known public art pieces, such as the “Before I Die” wall and the “I Wish This Was” sticker project.

“Before I Die” is a chalkboard-painted wall she constructed on the side of an abandoned building that encourages anyone to write down what they want to do before they died. The sticker project encouraged people to share what they wished various vacant storefronts would become.

“There’s little dialogue between the people who live and work in a neighborhood and the local businesses that open. What if there was? How can residents influence the types of stores and services that enter their neighborhood?” - Candy Chang

Many of the ideas and principals of the democratization of space which we espouse at Layar are shared by Chang. “I’m also more and more insterested in redefining the ways we share information in public space to improve our personal well-being,” she says. “It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and forget what really matters to you.”

“What if we could find out what all our neighbors pay in rent? What if we could say what businesses we want in these vacant storefronts? What if we could learn about people’s experiences and stories with particular buildings? What if we could use public space to share and learn what matters most to the people around us?” - Candy Chang

Be sure to check out Candy’s interview in Juxtapoz as it serves as a strong indicator of our inspiration and vision at Layar today!

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, we’ve got a special event coming up that we hope you’ll join us for!

On Friday May 20th, we will be hosting LAYAR DAY L.A. - a full day of hacking space and time with augmented reality. Join us as we seek inspiration from visionary thinkers and from street-level artists, and help us make some cool AR!

Meet the Layar team at 10:45am at the Geffen Contemporary for an informal visit to the Art in the Streets exhibition of street art. MOCA opens at 11am and admission is $10 at the door.

From 1:30-3:00pm, we move to the Arts Center College of Design where artist Sander Veenhof and Layar’s Gene Becker will lead a hands-on workshop for artists, designers and enthusiasts who want to learn to make augmented reality experiences on the Layar platform. We’ll use street art, public AR art exhibitions and historical layers as examples of hacking space and time.

Following the workshop, join us from 3:00-6:00pm for an afternoon with some of the most visionary and creative minds in augmented reality. We have an incredible lineup of speakers including noted author Bruce Sterling, Layar co-founder Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, Scott Fisher of USC’s School of Cinematic Arts and Dutch artist Sander Veenhof.

The LAYAR DAY L.A. workshop and symposium is hosted by Art Center College of Design, and will be held in the Faculty Dining Room at ACCD’s Hillside Campus, 1700 Lida St., Pasadena, CA. The informal tour of Art in the Streets will meet at 10:45am at the Geffen Contemporary.

Space is limited so visit this page to reserve your place at either the workshop or symposium.

Art is everywhere. Whether as simple as a crude marker sketch in a bathroom stall, or as intricate as a mixed-media mural covering the side of a building, there are dozens of inspired artistic creations free to view right outside your door. 

These pieces are often hidden in back alleys and tunnels, or painted over by the city or a rival artist, however, with MOB‘s new mobile streetARt application (available for free in the iTunes store), you can see the many different types of public art around you, past and present.

MOB developer Rob Manson has talked about street art with colleagues for years, as there are hundreds of great public art pieces on the streets and at skate parks near his house in Bondi Beach, Australia as well as in Sydney and Melbourne. Once the Layar Player became available for iPhone, Manson wanted to create an app to show it off that used widely distributed content in the AR view, so an ever-growing international collection of street art was the perfect fit.

Manson started the content-gathering process by running scripts across Flickr, which resulted in about 30,000 street art images in over 500 locations. The streetARt app then adds to that content, allowing users to snap photos and upload them directly to streetARtAPP.com.

In the iPhone app, users join the streetARt community by connecting their Twitter accounts where they can “like” and comment on photos as well as upload their own from inside the app. Currently the “likes” and comments are only visible to other app users, but Facebook/Twitter sharing is coming soon, along with other features like permalinks and advanced filtering options.

While Layar Player (and therefore the streetARt app) is currently only available for iPhone, streetARt’s content is fully viewable from within the Layar application, so both iPhone and Android users can view the images.

MOB is an Australia-based business innovation lab focused on mobile and online platforms. A member of the Layar Partner Network, MOB is responsible for the BuildAR layer creation tool as well as numerous other layers.