Hi! I’m happy you’re here!

‘Hi! I’m happy you’re here!’ is a sculptural augmented reality app. By taking a photo of a target image the app allows you to view and circumnavigate a sculptural object by artist Adham Faramawy through your camera view finder in real time.

The sculpture is a continually morphing ‘screen-like’ object embedded with a video of people continually waving, smiling and greeting you. They’re happy you’re here.

The app gives you instructions and advice on how to set a target to tether the sculpture to, even giving you real time feedback on how good the quality of your target image is. Often it’s best to use a magazine.

This app also allows you to take pictures of the sculpture in situ and share the images on social media. So strike a pose next to the sculpture and show your friends you’re happy you’re here too.

‘Hi! I’m happy you’re here!’ is supported by Arts Council England and launches in March 2015 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The launch event is an academic symposium titled ‘Until Recently I Only Had A Voice’, part of the David Lean public lecture series for the Royal Academy Schools. Faramawy has organized the event alongside artist Cecile B. Evans. Speakers have been invited to present and discuss topics arising from ways the body interfaces with technology ranging from the significance of physical presence to use of smart phones and tablets to artificial intelligence research, deep learning techniques and body augmentation.

This app was developed by Hutong Games and ErinKoStudios.