In the absence of real-life art shows, Judy Chicago has launched an app that lets users experience a digital version of her ongoing Atmospheres series.

The American artist made her first fireworks pieces in the late 1960s, using coloured smoke to transform and ‘feminise’ the landscape. Judy Chicago Rainbow AR is the first virtual edition of this, relying on augmented reality to recreate the experience wherever users are.

The app, which is available via Google Play and the App Store, was created in partnership with design studio International Magic and commissioned by art organisation Light Art Space.
It mimics the real-life behaviour of smoke, using simulation, particle systems, noise shaders and harmonic sound drawn from recordings of Chicago’s pieces to deliver a new experience each time.

‘At this moment in time, it seems even more important to offer the opportunity to bathe our environments with light, art and beauty in order to inspire hope and through a visual metaphor, suggest the possibility of positive change,’ says the artist.

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