Wedged between two buildings in Downtown Frederick, Maryland, the New York-based art and design studio SomePeople has installed a swooping, curvilinear net sculpture that doubles as an interactive, augmented reality (AR) game.
Happy Stripe was one of three winning projects that came out of a November 2019 design competition initiated by the AIA Potomac Valley, the Frederick Arts Council, the Downtown Frederick Partnership, and the Potomac Valley Architecture Foundation to activate the city’s historic downtown core. SomePeople’s snaking installation runs 30 feet into the alley and tilts from 16’ 8” at its highest point on the frame to 14’ 1” at the lower end, helping the piece pull double duty as a canvas over an occupiable space.
The red steel frame of Happy Stripe is intended to reference the red-brick buildings it’s squished between, while the arched pink nylon ropes that dangle between them will create playful shifting shadows over the course of the day.
Of course, the piece’s layout and netting serve another important purpose: To help get residents engaged with Happy Stripe while remaining safely socially distanced, an accompanying AR app lets visitors pull out their phone or tablet and turn the installation into a net for shooting balls into. Supporting teams of up to ten players at a time, the app lets the public engage with the work even when it might be too cold outside to linger and socialize beneath it. Of course, this kind of tech integration is nothing new for SomePeople, who typically integrate robotic fabrication and AR/VR possibilities into their projects.
Happy Stripe, installed on December 2 of this year, will remain up until November 2021. Fabrication was handled by the local Fire and Wire Welding, and schlaich bergermann partner served as the project’s structural engineer. The AR app was developed by XRFront.
