File:Nancy Baker Cahill Liberty Bell DC.jpg

Augmented reality artwork by Nancy Baker Cahill, Liberty Bell (augmented reality artwork, 2020, Washington, DC). The image illustrates a key body of work by Nancy Baker Cahill: her extended reality artworks using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which often merge technology and public art. The pictured work, Liberty Bell, consisted of six site-specific animated AR artworks set in: the site of the Boston Tea Party revolt; the Washington Monument; the "Rocky Steps" in Philadelphia; the Fort Tilden Army installation in Rockaway, Queens; Fort Sumter in Charleston; and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, site of the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" attack. Each depicted a floating, shape-shifting coil of red, white, and blue brushstrokes approximating a swaying, abstracted Liberty Bell (with a soundtrack) which built toward arrhythmic dissolution but retained cohesion. These works were commissioned by public institutions, publicly exhibited in prominent locations and discussed in major art journals and daily press publications.

Artist Nancy Baker Cahill. Copyright held by the artist.

Nancy Baker Cahill

AR animation still

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work and foundational project in Nancy Baker Cahill's career: her extended reality art using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), which often merges technology and public art, examining notions of the human, the body in relation to systems of power, issues involving art and access, and perception. These works employ a free AR application through which artists can exhibit virtual works that intervene in specific, outdoor public spaces through geo-location feature, and through which viewers can see them using smartphones and tablets. She and other artists have used the application as a tool of public engagement and critical social practice, mounting public art exhibitions in AR at sites of cultural, historical and political significance. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this foundational work and body of work, which brought Baker Cahill expanded recognition through exhibitions in major venues and coverage by major critics and publications. Baker Cahill's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Nancy Baker Cahill, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.