Augmented Reality Workshop with “Synaesthesia Gallery 2 AR”
Date: Sunday, March 9, 2025
Time: 12-3pm
Location: San Francisco Botanical Garden – North Gate (Friend Gate)
Explore Art, Music, and Science with an AR Walk in the Park
Haunted Planet will host an Augmented Reality workshop in the Botanic Gardens of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park in association with the International Association of Synesthetes, Artists and Scientists (IASAS).
This workshop will showcase Haunted Planet’s “Synaesthesia Gallery 2 AR” experience, featuring 12 episodes of music art soundscapes inspired by synesthesia’s cross-modal perception on a walk in the park. In a treasure hunt for music and art, the Haunted Planet team invites you to learn about the creativity of cross-modal perception and synesthesia. You’ll follow the radar on your smartphone to find AR music art encounters and collect them into your casebook. Make sure to have your smartphone charged!
Please note this interactive experience will start from the Botanical Garden’s North Gate (Friend Gate), located near Martin Luther King Drive.
You will be provided the instructions for how to play. The 60 Eventbrite arrivals will be given a promo code to download the app for free (normally priced at $6.99).
The workshop will also feature a scientific talk by creative director and CEO Haunted Planet Studios Prof. Mads Haahr, Dr. Svetlana Rudenko, and Carolyn CC Hart, an artist, neurodiversity advocate, and secretary of IASAS.
This event from Haunted Planet Studios is presented in collaboration with the International Association of Synesthetes, Artists and Scientists (IASAS). Learn more about the IASAS and other related events here.
Our Motivation
Provoked by numerous art-less walks during the pandemic, Haunted Planet Studios launched a series of location-based Augmented Reality experiences under the umbrella “OpenAirGallery AR”.
This services uses a smartphone-based locative media platform to display digital galleries and music albums in an interactive format.
About the App
Following the launch of “Synaesthesia Gallery AR: Journey through the Senses” 2021 at Trinity College Dublin for Brain Awareness Week (with funding award by Dana Foundation and Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS), “Synaesthesia Gallery 2 AR” app features creative synaesthesia experiences crafted in art and music: painted, composed or experienced. Synaesthesia is a wiring of the brain that is characterised by cross-modal perceptions.
In addition to perceiving stimulus in one sensory modality, e. g. sound/ music, synesthetes may perceive an additional quality to the experience in a secondary modality – a colour, or smell, or feeling. Many synesthetes use their cross- sensory experiences as creative inspirations.
Our previous research results showed a high level of interest in the genre of AR gallery games and the promising social benefits of cooperative cultural play, educational, and great aesthetic experience for individuals interested in art and music.
The app features works of scientists and artists who work with synaesthesia research, music, or art, or both: Michael Havercamp, Karin Olesen, Timothy Layden, Svetlana Rudenko, Christine Söffing, Dolores Montijano, Carol Steen, CC Hart, Carrie Firman, Ninghui Xiong, Greta Berman, Geri Hahn, M. K. Ciurlionis, Richard Roche, and Mads Haahr.
About the Organizers
Prof. Mads Haahr, School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Course Director for the MSc in Interactive Digital Media (IDM). Prof. Haahr conducts research into serious games with a focus on interactive digital narrative for cultural heritage. He has managed research grants for a total value of over €1.8M from Horizon Europe, Enterprise Ireland, the National Digital Research Centre and others. He partnered with five other EU Universities for current project LoGaCulture. He is the Founder, CEO and Creative Director for the award-winning serious game studio Haunted Planet Studios and also known for creating the Internet’s premier true random number service RANDOM.ORG.
Dr. Svetlana Rudenko, researcher and composer at Haunted Planet Studios, Dublin. She is an Educator, Concert Pianist, and a Researcher on Music Art Perception, Neuroesthetics, Creative Synaesthesia, Cognitive Musicology, Multisensory Design for Digitally Enhanced Realities, AR/MR for Education & Mental Health, Aesthetics for Sensory Substitution Devices, and new forms of multimedia for music and cultural heritage.
About Haunted Planet Studios
Haunted Planet Studios is a spin-out company from Trinity College Dublin, founded and led by Prof. Mads Haahr of the School of Computer Science and Statistics. The company specialises in Serious Games and Interactive Experiences for soft skills learning and cultural heritage, including art, music and history.
The company has received awards from the Irish Games Fleadh (awarded by Engineers Ireland) and also been nominated for an award by the European Museum Academy. Its projects have received funding from the European Union (under Horizon 2020), the Velux Foundation, UNICEF, the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the DANA Foundation for Brain Awareness Week.
Ticket reservation is for the app experience only and does not include Garden admission. Standard Garden entry rules still apply.
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