An Application for the Study of Art Movements

This work presents a general architecture for creating an application called the Art Movement Learning App (AMLA), whereby students can familiarize themselves with key characteristics of a given art movement (such as Surrealism), using technology, and appropriate the experience through their own artistic creation in a mixed reality environment. The architecture consists of two modules. The first is an apprentice art-and-technology familiarization module, wherein a specific art movement is introduced through a cumulative sequence of six phases, using a digital surface: (1) observation, where students analyze images portraying key characteristics of the chosen movement; (2) combination, including a set of tools that enables the combination of 2D images and 3D models, in light of these characteristics; (3) association, where key elements abstracted from a given artwork are matched with their location in the original artwork; (4) grouping, where students determine the characteristics shared by a given set of artworks; (5) discernment, where students choose from a pair of images, one of which belongs to the art movement that the AMLA was configured to introduce; and finally (6) evaluation by peers, where the artworks created in Phase 2 are evaluated by other students, using a preset scale. The major features of the art movement to be used as stimuli are selected in advance, after which the AMLA configures the respective phases. The second AMLA module is an Augmented Reality module, enabling students to create artworks displayed in mixed reality scenarios. This module consists of two phases: one wherein a student creates an artwork in a specific real-world environment, which is associated, by GPS coordinates or location-based services (LBS), with a physical object; and a second phase, wherein artworks are displayed as part of the app, so that anyone downloading the application can view the students’ work, and evaluate it using an affective-response scale. User registration is necessary in order to access the first module; thus, if the application is downloaded without registration, only the final phase, of the second module, will be shown (i.e., artworks are displayed with augmented reality using GPS coordinates or LBS). The objective of the AMLA is to present an interactive process, through various stages, involving a set of actions enabling students to learn more about the characteristics of art movements, while enhancing both their creative skills and their art-perception experience.