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Why were these specific paintings chosen?

Mayhew: Keri Ryan and I explored the AGO collection and decided together. Decisions were based on which paintings had the most ‘interactive’ potential and where there was a particular contrast with present day life.

Photo by Senait Gebremeskel

What do you think the original painters would think of augment reality?

Mayhew: We have no way of telling what the original artist would feel. The most contemporary work in the series is The Marchesa Casati by Augustus John which was painted almost 100 years ago. Certainly the Marchesa Casati herself would have loved the attention. She is famously quoted as having always wanted to be “a living work of art.”‘ When you see the augmented reality re-mix, you will see we have kind of granted her that wish!

Some people may take offence to the way we have “altered” and played with these masterworks. We can say that every piece we created came from a place of love. We highly respect the themes and aesthetics of the original pieces and we crafted our interventions with meticulous attention to detail whilst trying to stay true to the spirit of the original.

Kelso: I think it is safe to day that none of the artists of the original paintings in our exhibition would have had even an inkling of the kind of the technologies that we take for granted today. But I’d like to think that any creative person would be very excited with the new and powerful forms of expression and communication that AR and VR are capable of. I started my digital career at the dawn of the commercial web in the early 1990s, and I was truly thrilled to just go to work each day where something new always seemed to happen. I spent several years as an Internet evangelist telling everyone who would listen that “a new age is coming!” Over twenty years have passed, and I suddenly have this feeling once again.