LOTUSLAND FUTURE
From this developmental period of reflection, exploration and discussion, we are currently in the beginnings of designing an augmented reality app for LOTUSLAND. Alongside Karen Eng, a long time collaborator and supporter of LOTUSLAND, we have been in discussions with Yana Buhrer Tavanier, (co-founder/director of Fine Acts, TED Fellow, and Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts) as well as Wedge Martin, (technologist, entrepreneur and CEO of GeoPapayrus) to re-develop the GeoPapayrus app, or build a new one, to enable artists to reclaim monetised/corporate space through digital interventions using video, sound and still image. They enthusiastically support our idea, and wish to encourage further development of this idea, with hopes of future involvement within their organisations.
Initially we would develop the app using pre-existing content made through the various LOTUSLAND happenings throughout Cambridge, Wysing Arts Centre, and London. This would allow us to adapt the app so that it would be user friendly. The aim would be to share the app as a social platform to access particular projects, but also enable artists to create their own spaces within spaces they create themselves. It is very much in line with the idea of geo-cacheing, but celebrating queer, digital content.
In cities such as Cambridge, where space is very limited, difficult to access, and expensive, the LOTUSLAND app would enable an artist to ‘install’ their work wherever they wished. For example, LOTUSLAND ESTATES explored estate agencies, and the ideal creative space, so with the app, we could place our videos in the windows of every estate agent in Cambridge, turning the bland, beige city into something a lot more queer.
LOTUSLAND’s work resides within multiple queer frameworks, and to use both urban and rural locations throughout Cambridge and London, would enable a visibility within spaces that seem to actively reject such queerness.
We hope the LOTUSLAND app will empower artists to make their work visible in any location regardless of any bureaucratic or financial limitation. Whether they are site-specific responses using digital animations produced over various gaming platforms, moving image interventions, curated shows, audio/visual graffiti, etc., their audience would be encouraged to be inquisitive and explore spaces they feel exclude them. And ideally with technology that is user-friendly and accessible.
