The shARed spaces team at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) help make artwork leap off the page–literally. Earlier this year, a classroom of Grade 8 students in Germany took their artwork to the streets on picket signs with the project, AR!!Action. The students walked around, allowing the public the opportunity to see artwork come to life through augmented reality (AR).

Innovative artwork created by 12 University of Saskatchewan (USask) students will be publicly showcased this month when the USask campus is transformed through an augmented reality (AR) tour.In partnership with Nuit Blanche Saskatoon, USask will host a Nuit Blanche Eve event from 4 pm – 7 pm on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021. Attendees will be able to download the new Shared Spaces app—which was officially unveiled on Nuit Blance Eve last year -  to view 16 sculptures created by the students in new and exciting ways.

​A canoe built by Isaiah and Annie Roberts, and which was featured as part of Shared Space's presentation at the Canadian Craft Federation's Ten Digit Technology conference in March 2020, has been returned to the Lac La Ronge Indian Band. Shannon Boklaschuk has written article about the canoe's return, which was facilitated in large part by Shared Spaces Development Team member Terry Clark.

The first digital Nuit Blanche Eve launched Friday, October 2nd. A partnership between Nuit Blanche Saskatoon and Shared Spaces, the event showcases the work of 10 USask students and also serves as the first public user test for the still-in-development Shared Spaces app. Links to download a test version of the app for iPhone and Android, and view the Nuit Blanche Eve artworks, are available here. 
 

From April to May, 2020, our User Engagement Team developed prototypes for the Shared Spaces service. Employing service design methodology, they developed journey maps and storyboards for each of our personas, using these to understand how people would come to know about and use Shared Spaces. From this understanding, they worked with Professor Lisa Birke to wireframe and develop the user interface for the app itself. We asked them to reflect on this process. Excerpts from their reflections are below.
 

We worked with Saskatchewan artist Ruth Cuthand, developing Augmented Reality content for two of her pieces that she presented at the Canadian Crafts Federation’s Ten Digit Technology conference, which took place in Saskatoon in March, 2020.
 

Our Project Manager, Michael Peterson, was invited to present as part of the Building Digital Communities panel for the Canadian Craft Federation's Ten Digit Technology Conference, which was held in Saskatoon March 4th to 7th, 2020. He spoke about our design process, what we have learned from contributors across the province, and our initial project directions in response. 
 

Video of Michael's presentation is available at: https://youtu.be/4RKS2QSpuMg. 

As part of our project, Shared Spaces has been working on developing an augmented reality (AR) application. We are currently in the prototyping phase, learning and observing how members from our communities respond to this type of technology. For those unfamiliar with how AR works, here is a brief explanation: Upon opening an AR app, the user first scans a “trigger”. This can be a photograph, scanned image, QR code - basically any digital image file that is visually unique. The app reads this trigger and activates some other form of content; this can be a video, animation, link, etc.

I traveled up north within Saskatchewan to La Ronge to meet with a group of individuals who are either artists who work in various forms of mediums, or who enjoy taking some part in the arts. This was the first group to experiment with the Augmented Reality (AR) artworks we displayed. At first, I was skeptical of whether this group would enjoy interacting with the AR, or if the whole process and experiencing AR was too challenging. They were skeptical at first, questioning why we chose the AR route, and whether technology should be the recommended platform we chose to view art.

I traveled to North Battleford for two design workshops. Driving to these workshops has been an excellent way to reflect on Saskatchewan’s need for new connections between artists and communities that are normally separated by time, money, and distance.