For AND Festival 2021, visitors stepped aboard the iconic Mersey Ferry to inhabit a fantasy-fiction world exploring an evolved reality brought about by climate change, rising sea levels and tropical climates. Using augmented reality (AR), artist Anita Fontaine invited the viewer to leave perceptions of reality ashore, encountering a kaleidoscopic world of psychedelic sculptures exploding from land and water.
The Liverpool skyline playfully shapeshifted, revealing a surreal alternate reality of our local urban landscape in The Blue Violet River. The work was experienced by passengers via eight custom-built, tablet-based viewfinders on the decks of the Mersey Ferry. An abstract, physical, pop-up performance ritual during each cruise also featured costumed inhabitants of the River, from Anita’s Fontaine’s future fairytale.
The Blue Violet River by Anita Fontaine is commissioned and produced by Abandon Normal Devices. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England, with further support from Wirral Borough Council and Merseytravel.
3D Artist: Ignas Blažys Writer: Kris Hermansson Software Developer: Grigor Todorov Fabrication: Adam Sadiq & M3 Industries Producer: Tricia Coleman Production Manager: David Berger Technical Operator: Andrew Hunt Special thanks to McCann Manchester, Fox & Co & Chris Mullany.
