A New Container, Alex McKenzie - November 15, 2024 - December 6, 2024
A consistent stream of AR ‘experiences’ appear on a small circular platform throughout the three weeks of A New Container. Each piece the result of a daily practice of production by the artist. 3D scans of impromptu sculptures, photos mapped to objects as material textures, and personal narratives built from various 3D assets were common approaches to this public act of journaling.
Extended reality has become an internal part of McKenzie’s practice in the recent years - a technology that simultaneously feels attractice in its novelty but lacking in its experience.
‘It’s the idea of these types of projects that often feel more satisfying than the act of actually pulling out a phone or headset to ‘look’ at them’.
In mid 2024 as McKenzie was developing an exhibition proposal for My Friend Sparskburg, Meta announced a massive budget cut to Reality Labs (its AR/VR arm) - and ultimately the dissolution of Meta Spark Studio, the software used to create this project.
Unlike the death of a physical medium, where the original experience can be resurrected through other means, when software (and the systems that support it) dies, you’re left not knowing if it will ever be able to be experienced again.
A New Container is a farewell to this platform.
-Alex McKenzie