Industry City Mural

2021

In 2021, Industry City invited BUCK to contribute to its mural arts program. We were eager to jump in and fill the void that a year without museums and galleries had left behind—and the result was this spiraling, multi-disciplinary AR mural.

Design

For this adventure in the mural arts, we picked a graphic designer, 2D animator, experiential coding artist, and a cg artist to each write a set of rules to layer onto three simple shapes — a circle, square, and rectangle.

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Interactive Module

We wanted to create a space that not only displayed our aesthetic capabilities, but that would invite passersby to engage with the installation and share in the experience of creation. Approaching the wall, viewers can engage with the work as passive paint laid on a brick wall, or explore how the design acts within an AR expressive coding experience.

Motion test

After having cracked the design, then came the motion test. With the outer edges tethered, the interior shapes could be pulled, warped, and spiked out in an infinite number of permutations, evolving into unique patterns and mosaics for each individual viewer.

Coding Development

Last but not least, replicate it all in code! This process revealed a few pleasant surprises, mainly how interesting the experience could be when rows and columns collapsed down to single frames.

Painting

Thus, RICCI was born. A riotous, joyful celebration of AR. It’s also — in the vein of any mural — a celebration of those spaces where human connections are made over a shared experience.

Why name it RICCI? It comes from ricci de mare, Italian for “sea urchin.” Which is exactly what some of the spikier shapes may evoke.