This document describes an augmented reality art game called "Playing ARt" that allows players to collaboratively create art using an iPad and augmented reality markers. The game is inspired by the exquisite corpse drawing game and uses an HTML5 canvas to display virtual objects overlaid on real-world markers. Players will pass around the iPad to take turns adding images or drawings to a composite artwork that can then be saved. The game aims to explore new modes of collaborative art production using augmented reality and procedural techniques. It is still in development to refine the user experience and allow more complex interactions.

1. Playing ARt
THE AUGMENTED REALITY ART GAME
Investigator: Nettrice R. Gaskins

2. A World Within Itself
Of course, when we say that the aesthetic
object bears a world within itself, we do
not mean to identify this object expressly
with a consciousness. - Mikel Dufrene

4. The Representing World
 The computer
interface presents
virtual objects, or
worlds upon
which operations
are performed.

5. Emergent Game Play
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations
in video games, board games, or table top role-
playing games that emerge from the interaction
of relatively simple game mechanics.

6. Procedural Drawing
Modern
artists have
used mental
Drawing by:
procedural Matthew Lewis
methods to
„build up‟
their art.
 Procedural drawings, i.e. generative
artworks, created via computer
interfaces can look “analog,” with
the energetic marks of an un-steadied
hand producing imaginative objects.

7. The Epic Exquisite Corpse
Remember that game where you draw the legs of something, fold the paper and pass it to someone else
to draw the next part of a body? Some people seem to call it Consequences and other people call it
Exquisite Corpse. Regardless of what you happen to call the game, a new version of it exists online at
epicexquisitecorpse.com where users can draw whatever they want in one of a million drawing slots,
linking their imagery to lines and shaded areas visible only at the edge of their "canvas"...

8. Procedural Painting #3
 Celia Pearce recently orchestrated Public
Emergence: Procedural Painting #3 which she
describes as an “experiment in emergence.”

9. Playing ARt: HTML5 & AR
Using procedural painting as a basis for a mobile
AR experience affords artist communities from all
levels of society to explore new modes of
production… but the big question is: Is it art?

10. The HTML5 Canvas Element
Gesture drawing on a HTML5 canvas captures the essence of the form (ex. a dancer)
being replicated on the tablet/screen. Elaborate details matter little – the most
important part is the movement and shape as it relates to the negative space around it.
These gesture drawings are studies of form in motion.

11. Putting It All Together
 Isaac Kulka‟s “canvas
generator” merges two
technologies: HTML5 & the
Argon Augmented Reality
browser. I am building on
this to create an art game
inspired by the Exquisite
Corpse.
 The challenge is to create
a version of the game that
makes use of the AR
interface and experience.

12. The Plan
This
 Embed AR frame markers
prototype (see image top right) in a
will be game board to
further trigger/display an HTML5
developed canvas element that
later. contains more content.
 Create AR markers that
allow players to add their
own images or drawings
overlaid on the canvas and
real objects (like a
collage).

14. In the future, color coding can assign categories to image databases that
players can choose images from to create the art.

15. The Prototype
 Players pass around the
iPad to add to a
hybrid/collage image,
made up of images, i.e.
background & doodles.
 Player(s) can screen
capture and save the final
composite image.

16. One Game, Many Results
 The ability to embed
frame markers and
display multiple images
inside a canvas element
(figure/ground, doodles)
will give players several
options to create
collaborative art.
 This experience allows
players to use vector
elements singularly or
combine them into
configurations of their
choosing.

17. Final Notes
 Trial and error process using the still-developing
Argon Augmented Reality Browser; constraints
required several adjustments to the original plan;
 Some features like “hudding” canvas overlays work in
some cases and not in others;
 As Argon (markers) becomes more stable further
development will enable more complex game
mechanics (ex. choosing an image from a database);
 Multiple channels in Argon will allow for additional
content to be added to the user experience such as
panoramas, real objects and spaces.

18. Special Thanks
Georgia Tech‟s Experimental Game Lab (EGL) & Augmented Environments Lab
(AEL), especially Blair MacIntyre, Isaac Kulka, Hafez Rouzati, and others who
gave of their time/resources/ideas.
Professor John Sharp for giving me an extension on my final project!
URLS
Argon http://argon.gatech.edu
My Web Site http://nettrice.us
My Blog http://netarthud.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/cognitive-artifact-
the-playing-art-ar-game
For more information contact: Nettrice R. Gaskins nettrice@gmail.com