Atlantic Park AR Mural Blends Physical + Virtual Environments
In our continuous strive to deliver unique experiences, Hanbury’s in-house visualization team is pushing the boundaries of research, discovery and experimentation. Through our involvement with the design and development of Atlantic Park, a planned surf park and year-round entertainment and lifestyle district, this creative collective is helping to visualize the ethos of the project in a fresh and playful way. Blurring the lines of virtual and physical environments, Tony Lin, Jack Wasielewski, and Alec Yuzhbabenko recently launched an augmented reality (AR) experience for the project as part of the fifth annual ViBe Creative District Mural Festival.
Our client, Venture Realty Group, enlisted our team’s help in selecting a local artist to create a custom mural – one of 10 for the festival – on the shipping containers staged at the Park’s site. Choosing Hanna Kirby as the muralist, Alec and team worked closely with the artist to set and refine the creative direction for the piece. During this process, Hanna supplied our team with digital 2D drawings of the mural in process, with which Jack and Tony began to work in parallel to develop an interactive AR experience that would bring a new layer of community engagement to the art.
Symbolically, this onsite activation brings to life Virginia Beach’s past, present, and vibrant future. Upon scanning the QR code accompanying the mural, users are encapsulated within a Buckminster Fuller-inspired geodesic virtual container harkening back to The Dome, the iconic concert venue and civic center that previously stood at this location. Within the virtual dome, users are surrounded by a colorful school of animated fish alluding to the diversity of this beach community and its visitors, which serves as a powerful nod to the inclusive, all-welcoming spirit of Atlantic Park and the co-creation of the city’s bright future that is currently underway.
“the vision for this project and the underlying thesis of connection really resonated with me. When I thought of community and connectedness, the notion of a vibrant, multicolored school of fish immediately came to mind and the message ‘Together we will do so much’ was to serve as a call to action and hopeful promise of what’s to come.” - Hannah Kirby
If you are in the area or planning to visit, be sure to check out the mural and AR experience which will be open to the public at the corner of 19th Street and Arctic Ave until project groundbreaking later this fall.
