Holiday augmented reality window art makes 'jaws drop,' organizer says

Be sure to bring your smartphone to get the most out of a new art exhibit in downtown Calgary.

A group of artists are painting street-levelwindows along Stephen Avenue and the surrounding area in a holiday theme and if you look at them through your smartphone, you'll see a surprise animation.

"Oh my gosh, the reactions are the best," organizer Katie Pearce said Friday. "I love especially the young ones. They just like are, their jaw drops. It's great."

The colourful window paintings are based on memories or traditions the artists have from the winter holiday season. The pictures feature Christmas trees, reindeer and skating.

TheNorthern Reflections Window Exhibition incorporates augmented reality technology, which makes the animations show up when someone points their phone at the painted window.

One, for example, counts down the days until Christmas.

"It's been a bit of a tricky process. The technology is relatively new so we had to do a number of iterations," said Pearce, who is the creative director and founder of Buds of Buds.

"But we expected that to be part of the process. It was a little bit of heavy research and development to get it up and running."

Each artist must be careful to have high contrast in the painting, which they create using colours, lines and shapes. An animator creates a picture to put over top of that and then a developer attaches the two.

Artist Christine Stein of Calgary's Copper Spruce Studio painted green trees topped with snow on Friday as people strolled by.

She said she applied to be in the exhibition because she likes painting windows and the augmented reality component "is incredibly cool."

"I love the idea of collaborating with other artists to bring a painting to life and allow audiences to interact with it, so it's really exciting," she said.

You can explore the painted windows onStephen Avenue and the surrounding streets this month.

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With files fromCBC's Monty Kruger.