'Think With Your Hands'

  • Visual arts
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Fri, September 19 —
    Sun, November 30, 2014
'Think With Your Hands'

This fall Artisphere and SPAIN arts & culture present the exhibition Think with Your Hands: Illustrated Journals Come to Life through Augmented Reality.

Think with Your Hands brings together the illustrated journals of Spanish illustrators and graphic designers Pep Carrió and Isidro Ferrer in a unique collaboration between artists and software developers. The exhibit takes an unusual twist where animation, video and augmented reality bring to life over sixty illustrations of two of Spain’s most interesting graphic artists working today. This connection between creativity and innovation is central to Artisphere’s focus on artists working at the forefront of new technologies.

The illustrated journals, collages and sculptures of award-winning Carrió and Ferrer were used as a platform to explore the development of two and three dimensional animation through augmented reality. UNIT, a team of programmers and artists at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain developed an app for iPads, iPhones and Android mobile devices that responds to the artwork and brings the two dimensional characters to life. This emerging technology is so new that the developers are just beginning to realize the potential of its applications.  Of the 150 illustrations on exhibit, over 60 will be app-responsive, allowing the patron to experience two-dimensional artwork in previously unimaginable ways. The illustrations and collages highlight the artists’ graphic design style, embracing humor, surrealism and sublime moments of life.

About the artists

Pep Carrió and Isidro Ferrer are prolific and influential designers in Spain. Both have exhibited extensively and have won numerous awards including Graphis poster Annual Gold Awards and Golden Label Award (Austria) and the Film Festival Posters (Bronze - US).

Under Pep Carrió’s direction, Estudio Pep Carrió has created notable designs for Camper Shoes, Canal+ and the Bank of Spain. His portfolio includes a prestigious list of cultural institutions and private corporations. Carrió’s illustration and graphic design work has included exhibition catalog design, national festival posters and company branding and identity. Highly regarded, he speaks frequently about graphic design at classes, workshops and through local media.

Isidro Ferrer’s career shifted to graphic design in 1988 after a profession in acting and set design. Since then his body of work, which embraces surrealism in everyday objects, has garnered attention in national design circles including work for Random House UK and the Madrid 2020 Olympic Proposal for the Spanish Olympic Committee.

Nuria Rodríguez is an artist, lecturer, graphic designer and curator of Think With Your Hands. She holds a PhD in Fine Arts and a degree in Industrial Design. She is the Director of the Masters Program in Design and Illustration, and is also the Director of Unit Experimental both housed at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.

Unit Experimental is a cross-discipline research team that specializes in augmented reality primarily for cultural events. Comprised of artists, programmers and dreamers, they take a non-traditional approach to teamwork and collaboration blurring the lines between artistic and scientific disciplines, and are based at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.

Related events

Curator and artist talk on Saturday, September 20 at 2 pm; free; at Dome Theatre and Terrace Gallery. Nuria Rodríguez, curator and director of UNIT will discuss the process of creating augmented reality for the exhibition. Then, join us in the Terrace Gallery with graphic designers Pep Carrió and Isidro Ferrer where they will discuss selected works from the exhibition.

Free opening reception on Friday, September 19, from 7 pm to 9 pm, at Terrace Gallery + Upper Town Hall.

Venue

Venue map

Artisphere (Terrace Gallery), 1101 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22209
703-875-1100

Admission

Free and open to the public. Opening hours: Wednesday-Friday, from 4 pm to 11 pm; Saturday, from noon to 11 pm; and Sunday, from noon to 5 pm.

More information

Artisphere

Credits

Presented by Artisphere in collaboration with SPAIN arts & culture, with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain and the Spain-USA Foundation. Produced by UNIT: Experimental, interactive publishing / Universitat Politècnica de València, with the collaboration of La Imprenta.

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