The inaugural ‘Augmented Revolution’ AR trail featured six artworks across two Adelaide CBD locations throughout the duration of the festival. Each site hosted three physical pillars with QR codes to download the app to iOS and Android devices and unique in-app scannable codes that trigger each artwork with precise positioning based upon ground detection.

While using the app, users could locate and navigate each artwork through an interactive map, capture snapshots and live screen recordings of their device screen, and explore artist bios and artwork synopses of contemporary First Nations artists Carly Tarkari Dodd, Jaydenlee Tong, and Temaana Yundu Sanderson-Bromley, as curated by Dearna Newchurch.

The VR experience immerses viewers in the vast landscapes of South Australia’s mid-north region where the famous Tesla SA big battery is located and gives the unique opportunity to see the battery from within the compound fence.

We captured 360 footage on-location, including a breathtaking 360 drone flyover to introduce the entire experience, and introduced interactive elements to allow users to manually select an area to visit or opt for an immersive guided tour throughout four different areas. Information on each area is delivered through scripted voiceover and on-screen graphics highlighting key points suited for an audience ranging from technical engineers to school students.

The app’s experiences include a language learning game with pronunciations, an indigenous plant catalogue, and an AR (Augmented Reality) experience that connects physical artworks to First Nations storytelling through digital interpretation. The ‘Circle of Elders’ AR experience is located at the entrance of the building by ‘Ngurare Beng Marna’ (Important, Big Meeting), a sculpture by a local Djaara/Bangerang artist.

“Galkangu: building with Djaara” acts as a digital companion for visitors of the Galkangu – Bendigo GovHub building, providing an additional layer of content to discover more about the inclusion of Dja Dja Wurrung design elements and language within the building’s architecture, landscaping and spaces

We delivered the 10-minute animated, interactive VR journey as an app available to be downloaded from the store and experienced on a smart phone contained in a fold-out cardboard viewing headset, allowing for easy accessibility and distribution. A brief questionnaire presented before and after the experience asks the user their opinions and knowledge of smoking, providing insight on any knowledge shift and prompting the young person to reflect and bring their new knowledge home.

Working with the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service team, we formed a narrative designed to connect to young people with familiar voices and visual images that they respect. Knowledge is shared through progressive stages of the experience on virtual Country by ‘Auntie Julie’, an elder who guides the user throughout the journey, and the people from the community the user engages with, listening as they share their lived experience stories.

Adelaide Christmas Cracker Trail pillars were installed at each location, complete with QR codes to download the app to iOS and Android devices, unique in-app scannable codes, and ground detection and decal alignment technology to take the user through an augmented reality experience based upon the festive event planned at each location.

The user (big or small) can play with pulling digital crackers, popping baubles and enjoying the jokes, facts and games within, utilising face-tracking technology to create fun, bespoke selfies to save and share, and interacting with their surroundings via the phone screen – from decorating Adelaide’s Giant Christmas Tree, posting a Christmas letter at the Town Hall, seeing Santa back on Grote Street, or taking part in a rubber duck race that appears in the Rymill Park pond.

This film offers an unrivalled immersive experience that will leave viewers in no doubt about the devastating effect of climate change. This project fits right in the middle of our lens to produce positive social consciousness projects that entertain, engage and educate audiences. It also ties together our skills in storytelling, interactive, experiential, animation, live-action production and simulation.

Visit the Thin Ice VR website

Major Partner: Torrens University Australia
Financed and developed with the assistance of: South Australian Film Corporation, Screen Australia and Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund
Supported by: Kathmandu, One Ocean Expeditions and Documentary Australia

When the pandemic forced the closure of interstate borders, we were presented with the challenge of how to design the exterior; a set of perspective based animations that required very specific placement to deliver the audience experience, the interior; a user-triggered storytelling space to be used by BAE executives, how to test everything and make sure that the exhibition company could install the Cube on location in Queensland… all without any of our staff being able to leave South Australia.

With no way for our team to be on the ground for bump-in adjustments typical of a project like this, we built a VR-based pre-visualisation system in Unity to instruct the Cube’s physical and digital relationship, and interactivity – providing a way to build and test real world solutions without the boundaries of location.

The ‘Turning Gray Street Green’ app has three AR points with physical markers located on Gray Street in Adelaide’s CBD, each marker with a QR code for users to scan using their smartphone and be taken directly to their app store to download.

Alignment guide-based AR activations are triggered when the physical markers are scanned through the app, enabling users to experience various key elements of Green Adelaide; from an artist render of what that street will look like in future, to how water sensitive urban design is managed.

Riverland on the Verge leads the way as the future of tourism, using VR technology to transport travellers into the heart of South Australia’s iconic Riverlands, inspiring the viewer to make their virtual experience a reality.

Users experienced Riverland on the Verge by simply downloading the free app and ordering a headset for free from the official Riverland on the Verge site. The experience was set up in South Australian locations with Oculus VR headsets including the Riverland Wine Centre and National Wine Centre of Australia, and seen on South Aussie with Cosi.

After almost seven months of forced closure due to the pandemic, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute celebrated reopening its doors and 30th birthday celebrations with the exhibition ‘Atnwengerrp – Our Apmere, Our Place’. Providing a solution for those who couldn’t physically attend the exhibition had never been more relevant, Virtual Tandanya delivers the captivating qualities of an immersive gallery experience to people across South Australia, the region of Utopia and the rest of the world.

We augmented the space to give the viewer a sense of intimacy, the dark gallery space emphasised by the illuminated monochromatic artwork, digitally capturing the physical space’s specific lighting design. The experience allows users to interact with individual artworks to see the piece in high definition and text information including Artist profiles, specifics on the piece and the option to enquire for purchase, and is accompanied by a music experience created by Jimblah, an indigenous Australian hip hop artist from the Larrakia nation.