augment: ‘an increase, growth’
In a unique collaboration between multidisciplinary artist Ellie Niblock and 87 Gallery Explorers, Augment offers a tangible link to the digital and imaginary. The virtual installation is a new kind of garden, linked to our physical space. It utilises experimental ways of creating to enhance our community through the addition of a ‘green space’ where we can reflect and explore. The work is a playful foray into the ways in which children create uninhibitedly, and serves as a reminder of the value of process and play for our mental health. Augment serves as a permanent time stamp of both our current technology and the individual Explorers’ creative decisions at this specific point in time.
In addition to the garden, Augment also presents three new sculptural works by Ellie Niblock which reflect on the possibilities of how materiality and technologies can alter our perception of experiences. Niblock creates highly decorative and tactile objects and manipulates them through various software to investigate the relationship between the digital and physical worlds.
The Exhibition
Virtual Worlds
To explore the Augment virtual worlds, click the red Play button and ‘Run Game’ on the page that follows.
Go full screen with the icon in the bottom right corner. Use your W, A, S and D keys to move around the worlds, and Space to jump.
Augment displays best when using Google Chrome.
Making Augment
Go behind the scenes and gain deeper insight into the making of Augment with Ellie and the Explorers, from sculptures made in physical workshops to virtual garden worlds.
87 Gallery Explorers
At 87 Gallery, it’s important for us to be able to create rich and meaningful experiences for young people, and to deepen our shared understandings of how to access creative careers, and the wider contextual world of art and design. 87 Gallery Explorers is an opportunity for learning and discovery connected to our on-going contemporary arts programme.
QR Code Trail
Scan the QR codes around the building and our outdoor spaces at 87 Gallery to activate portals into the Augment virtual worlds.
Image: Deci Gallen
Ellie Niblock
Ellie Niblock is a Northern Irish artist living and working in London. Interested in the possibilities of how materiality and technologies can alter our perception of experiences, she creates highly decorative and tactile objects and manipulates them through various software to investigate the relationship between the digital and physical worlds and how they co-exist.