Australian artists Tin Nguyen and Edward Cutting have created a new immersive augmented reality (AR) experience called Deep Field, powered by iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. The interactive AR and sonic app, initially available at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, allows students and families around the world to cocreate and connect through their shared reimagining of the environment.
Deep Field utilizes the power and portability of iPad Pro and the precision of Apple Pencil to foster creativity. Participants are encouraged to draw their own flora and fauna inspired by works of art and the environment. These designs are then added to a global database of flora, cocreating a new ecosystem where the invisible worlds of plants are revealed through the magic of AR. The artworks can be viewed in a three-dimensional format using the LiDAR Scanner on iPad Pro, creating an immersive natural world.
The Deep Field experience aims to provide new perspectives and ignite discussions about the planet. The app’s UV mode even enables participants to view their newly created world from the perspective of a pollinator. Tin Nguyen and Edward Cutting, multidisciplinary artists known as Tin&Ed, use accessible technology to empower people to bring their creativity to life while raising awareness about the importance of environmental protection.
To bring Deep Field to life on a larger scale, Tin&Ed worked across multiple devices, combining their background in art and design with creative technologies. The power of MacBook Pro, Mac Studio with M1 Ultra, and Studio Display, along with the 3D platform Unity, allowed for the development of complex three-dimensional worlds optimized for real-time viewing. The Deep Field app was designed using Apple’s ARKit framework, which integrates the depth-sensing features of iPad Pro with the M2 chip to create realistic AR experiences.
According to Tin Nguyen, AR is a powerful artistic medium for storytelling because of its immersive and multisensory nature. He believes that the power of the M2 chip on iPad Pro has made it possible to create a collaborative work that enables children from around the world to imagine new worlds together in real time. Edward Cutting hopes that Deep Field encourages children to look, listen, and think more deeply about the natural world and their connection to it.
To enhance the multisensory experience, Deep Field features a soundscape of forgotten and extinct species created by audio naturalist Martyn Stewart. Stewart, along with his foundation, The Listening Planet, has dedicated his life to cataloging the sounds of the planet and raising awareness about the importance of nature’s voice.
Deep Field is currently available for students and families at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney and will be available at the Getty Center in Los Angeles from July 8 to July 16. Afterward, the experience will embark on a world tour, making stops in Europe in October and Asia in November, including a visit to the ArtScience Museum in Singapore.
