Coming from an immigrant family of Chinese descent and living in Oakland, California, Estella Tse recalls her struggle having to navigate between her strict, traditional heritage – and her more liberal American upbringing, which encouraged individualism and freedom of expression. Art, she explains, was her form of escapism, as well as a way to reconcile the two worlds she found herself caught between.
Her professional background is as diverse as her heritage, including web design, front-end development, sociology, illustration, and visual design. Through her work, she now explores the intersection between art, technology, and impactful storytelling using immersive technologies such as VR and AR.
Participating in Adobe’s Immersive Artist in Residency Program, Tse was given early access to Project Aero, Adobe’s new augmented reality (AR) authoring tool and multi-platform system that aims to provide a user-friendly and intuitive interface for artists, designers and developers to create immersive content.
Tse’s project, developed using Project Aero software, was recently showcased alongside that of 14 other artists at the Festival of the Impossible in San Francisco, where her piece – half of which existed in the physical world and half could only be seen in AR – was appropriately called “two sides of the same coin.”
“It forces me to be more thoughtful in the ways I create art. Coming from traditional and digital 2D illustration background, AR is more like sculpting and environment design. I’ve had to put on my gallery show and exhibit designer hats to achieve a more holistic viewing experience. Creating for AR is more like placing a sculpture in a courtyard or someone’s living room — I have to consider how and where my viewer will be experiencing my piece. Unlike virtual reality, AR begs for interaction with the real world. How does my piece relate or conflict with the space or manner in which it’ll be viewed?”
Presentation video can be found here.
Source: Alice Bonasio, VR Scout
Image Credit: Festival of the Impossible
