Mural mapped for digital dimension

Although the paint dried earlier this month on the latest annex wall mural at Alfred Deakin Place, the final touches to the project have only just been added.

Jay Rankine, who practices under the pseudonym MERDA, was commissioned as the fourth artist to create a temporary piece at the space located behind the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

Titled Metamorphosis, Rankine finished recreating the work using augmented reality that he said “adds a dimension to it within the digital realm.”

“It’ll be a filter you can access on your phone through Instagram and Facebook. I’ve actually animated the design off the wall,” he said.

“It’s really been about mapping, testing, trying to get the shapes aligned. I want it as close as possible to the piece so people have to look twice at it.”

Rankine mapped the completed mural by using photogrammetry, which takes hundreds of photos of the piece which could then be animated using a computer program called Blender 3D.

The finished digitised product is accessible via an Instagram filter and depicts portions of the artwork extending beyond and spilling from the wall.

Rankine said the filter allows for an additional layer to the work.

“It adds something else to a static image. A mural is just something that doesn’t move. It’s static. It’s 2D,” he said.

“The augmented reality component brings so much more to it. I suppose it’s part of our technology, which is just moving forward very fast.

“Ballarat’s very tourism based, about the past. This is very much reflecting on what’s happening in our present with technology.”

The mural will remain in Alfred Deakin Place until August next year.