LEV AR: Celestial Beings

CELESTIAL BEINGS. CLAUDIA MATÉ

Madrid artist Claudia Maté, one of the most internationally renowned net artists, created specifically for the festival L.E.V. Matadero 2020 two large-scale virtual sculptures inspired by El Ángel Caído (The Fallen Angel), an emblematic sculpture by Ricardo Bellver located at El Retiro park in Madrid.

Using the free app LEV AR, Maté invites us to geolocate the different adaptations of these sculptures through augmented reality technology. The large-scale versions can be found at different spots of Madrid (the cultural centre Matadero, Templo de Debod, Plaza del Palacio Real and Plaza de la Cruz Verde), and there is another adaptation of the sculpture that you can visualize from any location.

We want to fill the world with Celestial Beings, and that’s why we have created a collaborative map that will show all the photographs of the virtual sculptures that you share with us through social media or email.

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LEV AR APP INSTRUCTIONS

01. Download the free app from Apple Store or Google Play Store.

IOS: https://apple.co/2Go60C9

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3jE1LAE

02. Open the app and activate the Augmented Reality window using the “ON” button.

03. There are two versions of the sculpture: the OPEN version (available from any location) and the GEOLOCATED version (large-scale and available from specific spots of the city of Madrid). Choose the one you would like to use by clicking on the HOUSE icon.

04. OPEN VERSION: Find a horizontal surface on which you will locate the sculpture and tap the screen to set it in place. Tap again if you want to move, rotate o scale the artwork.

05. You can modify parameters to play with light, shadows and the elevation of the sculpture by clicking on the wheel-shaped SETTINGS icon.

06. GEOLOCATED VERSION: In the app, you can access a map with all the locations where you can visualize the large-scale sculptures. You will have to find the exact spots for them to show up. The compass on the screen will guide you.

07. Use the app camera to capture the sculpture.

SHARE YOUR PHOTOS ON THE CELESTIAL BEINGS MAP

If you want your photos of the sculptures to show on our collaborative map, you have two options:

• SOCIAL MEDIA

Share your photo on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, using the hashtags #LEVMatadero and #CiudadAumentada and mentioning our profile @levfestival. Don’t forget to share the location in which they were taken, either through the location feature on Instagram and Facebook, or in the text of the post itself.

Important:

– We will only be able to see the photographs of the profiles that are set as public.
– If you share your photos on Instagram Stories, remember that these types of posts only last 24 hours. If you want them to show on the map, you can DM them to our profile @levfestival.

• EMAIL

You can also send us your photographs via info@levfestival.org, indicating “Entes Celestiales” in the subject and including in the text of the email the name of the author and the location where it was taken.

The photos shared through social media will be linked from the map to the original post. If you send them by email, they will show the name of the author next to it.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

The App will request permission to access the phone camera and camera roll to take pictures of the sculpture and store them in your device.
The LEV AR app works in devices with the built-in or supported specific technology for Augmented Reality: ARKit for iOS and ARCore for Android.

IPHONE AND IPAD

Operative system: iOS 11 or higher. Supported models: iPhone 6S or higher. Check the complete list at https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices#ios

ANDROID

Check the list of supported models here: https://developers.google.com/ar/discover/supported-devices#google_play. When installing the app, the system will detect if the Google Services of Augmented Reality are installed in your device. Otherwise, the system will ask you to install them before proceeding.

GPS: The version of the LEV AR app for geolocalized pieces will only work in devices with the GPS functionality (not included in all tablets).

About Claudia Maté

CLAUDIA MATÉ (b. 1985, Spain) lives and work in Paris. She works in a large area of new media and online based works. Her works come from a variety of formats including programming, 3D, video, videogames, VR, GIF and sound.

She is Co-founder and curator at cloaque org. Her work manages to blend the familiar with the odd, and the futuristic with strange retro tropes. She has realised her ambition to fuse the internet and interactive 3D technology into an aesthetic that is non-ideological and defines a never-ending new aesthetic – into a surreal and pixelated world where anything is possible, and nothing is as it seems.

Mate’s works has been exhibited internationally in Spain, USA, France, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, Croatia, Italy, Germany, Chile, Argentina, Switzerland, Netherlands, Venezuela, Korea, Mexico, Greece, Czech Republic, Iran, Peru, Lithuania, UK and online