BY & WITH URSULA ENDLICHER
"I'm walking through nature like through a website, looking for possible links, obvious or hidden, trying to open them,
to uncover further narratives, secrets, or messages. I do the same when walking through the city. There I am mostly looking for trees, trees with character,
hoping to discover a potential "Easter Egg" (*) in its bark, wondering what might be revealed here?
This is where the HTMLgardeness comes in: she inhabits these special trees; their bark contains "portals" that offer access to the HTMLgardeness' AR world."
The HTMLgardeness
The HTMLgardeness - Sowing HTML but Harvesting AI is an ongoing series of AR-Walks and experiences triggered by scanning the bark of trees, a natural QR-code. A critical yet playful series, it features the character of The HTMLgardeness, played by myself, reflecting on climate and systems, code and fragility, while offering AI-generated harvest.In these walks I invite visitors to venture out into different neighborhoods to discover, with phone and my new WebAR "bARk" (**) in hand, the HTMLgardeness' trees, portals and tree-inspired AR dances, while sampling tree-specific drinks and snacks, that I offer along the way.
Since this spring I have been working on a new WebAR called "bARk" which lets visitors experience augmented trees around NYC, Upstate New York — and also in Europe now!
You can find all current tree locations on the map within "bARk" and visit its locations. The WebAR runs in the web browser of your phone, so no need to download anything!
Remember: These are site-specific performative installations. Find yourself near one of her trees, then scan the "portal" on the bark as prompted by the AR experience, and voila - let the HTMLgardeness appear!
>>>Event 7: At Flux Factory on Governors Island, NY, on September 21, 2024, as part of the exhibit Spiritual Machines.
>>>Event 6: At panke.gallery in Berlin on September 7, 2024, as part of the exhibit alt.nets.
>>>Event 5: At Front Room Gallery in Hudson, NY on July 20, 2024
>>>Event 4: At Swale/Governors Island June 8 2024
Thanks for joining me on June 8, 2024, at Swale as part of Nature as Magic, an afternoon of conversation, walks, and evening screenings by Jenny Marketou, yours truly, and identity_runners with Katherine Liberovskaya and Marcia Bassett. Curated by Amanda McDonald Crowley and Public Art Action.
Great to walk with you all, using my new WebAR and to snack on some cherries and "maroni"!
>>>Event 3: At Thermostat May 24 2024
Thanks everyone for coming out to Thermostat on May 24, 2024, for the AR walk around Park Slope! It was real fun walking the streets with you all, trying out my new WebAR, and sipping some ginkgo tea and oak coffee together...
>>>Event 2: The Active Space January 20 2024
The HTMLgardeness had its first official initiation in January at The Active Space during the event On The Edge of the Infinite III. On that occasion, I performed the "map" of the current HTMLgardeness' tree locations - revealing the trees that she inhabits - while also offering tree-specific snacks and drinks to the audience.
While the "performative" map was presented just for that evening inside the gallery, the "real" piece remained - and remains - outside, on the streets, to visit anytime...
"Ursula Endlicher's AR performance environment reveals digital secrets hidden in the natural world beyond the gallery walls."
Excerpt of announcement for the event in Tussle Magazine.
>>>Event 1: Walks & Talks, Harvestworks, Governors Island October 28&29 2023
Walks&Talks as part of The Process October 2023.
This piece started to take shape last fall on Governors Island, during an exhibition at Harvestworks (where I showed work that already included The HTMLgardeness, but in a more marginal role) and where I gave "Walks&Talks" through tree-related works.
About... The HTMLgardeness has been sowing HTML but has to fend off AI generated harvest now!
Tapping into my own narratives about nature and technology, this work introduces the character of the HTMLGardeness - a character played by myself (which i often do in my work) - who is the "protector" of the Web (of previous versions? of open, transparent, and experimental, fictitious, new versions?). In this role she is sowing HTML trying to keep a decipherable, caring and distributed web growing but has to battle continuous AI generated fruit and seeds which take over her harvest...
The network of tree roots is a "natural" communication network that supports the exchange of beneficial nutrients between trees and shares information on how to fight off attackers and diseases, where else the network a visitor taps into via the "natural QR code" of the tree bark unfolds the networked world of the HTMLgardeness' Web in a playful way...
Natural QR-Code
The idea, or more or less "discovery", of the "natural QR code" is something that felt like an epiphany - instead of using a regular QR code for triggerening an AR experience (never struck my fancy as a trigger idea) I realized that the bark of trees has its own light and dark structures that can be used as code. The aspect that bark will grow over time, a little twig might decide to grow there suddenly, or a piece of bark might break off - all this fascinates me as an ephemeral aspect of the work.
** bARk: Very excited about having developed a new WebAR "bARk" for the HTMLgardeness! I have been working on this very handy web-based AR with the amazing Keiji Drysdale!
"bARk" can be accessed at html.bark.garden and is developed for smartphones and works by scanning the bark of the HTMLgardeness' trees on location! Go to the URL and you'll see her map! Trees in Park Slope around Thermostat, on Governors Island around Swale and Harvestworks, as well as in Hudson NY around Front Room Gallery, and now also around panke.gallery in Berlin, Germany, can be activated with the WebAR "bARk".
*** AR App: I used Overly App Apple iOS / Android earlier, as it is built upon a really great visual algorithm for recognizing image markers - bark on trees is not an easy recognizable trigger! But, I wanted a combine the project, the trees, and maps and the software! So the trees in Bushwick are still using Overly, soon to be moved to "bARk"!!