Nancy Baker Cahill

Method No. 13, 2018
AR (augmented reality) artwork with sound, accessible via the free 4th Wall app- wifi may be required for initial download

Method No. 13 was originally created for the 2018 Surveillance exhibition at @durdenandray  “A Matter of Public Record”. Method No. 13 addresses issues that often remain invisible to us in our current era; surveillance capitalism, data mining, misinformation campaigns and censorship. The title refers to the Orwellian clock striking 13, a reference that feels more salient today than ever. The artwork, which includes sound, will be experienced via the @4thwallapp above the southwest corner of Sunset & Wilton Pl.


HOW TO USE THE 4TH WALL APP:

  1. Using Wifi, download the FREE 4th Wall AR public art app. The app works on all phones 6s and above and Androids with AR Core. 
  2. Go to: the southwest corner of Sunset & Wilton Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90028
  3. Select Coordinates. The app will direct you to the AR artwork, which floats overhead. Be sure to enable sound, and allow access to location and photos. 
  4. After selecting Coordinates, follow the arrow on your screen to view Method No.13. Use the camera or video icon to record the experience. 
  5. Share your photos and video recordings on any social media and tag @4thwallapp #4thwallapp 

Artist statement
My work interprets the human body as an intimate source of knowledge; a vulnerable and resilient territory.The contradictions inherent in immersive media– invisibility/visibility, real/virtual, embodied/disembodied–  resonate with me as they mirror the push and pull of opposing forces within the body.Our ideas and lived experiences of our bodies are increasingly mediated by advances in technology. The tools I use to explore these changes reflect these adaptations. In drawing, video, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), installation and original sound, I attempt to isolate ephemeral moments of exertion and stillness. I am equally interested in power dynamics and how they shift, strain and contract. Drawing in traditional formats and in VR allows for an empathic expansion of my ideas. On paper and in virtual space, my process is deeply physical. My hope is that this energy is present in the experience of the work. I created a free, AR public art app, 4th Wall, to invite a broadly embodied experience of my work outside the solitary confines of the white cube. AR allows for an inclusive means of reconsidering site, time and space in relation to our own bodies. The app is also a tool of public engagement and subversive social practice. In addition, I have collaborative public art exhibitions in 4th Wall which include AR artworks created by me and by fellow artists that activate the historically, politically or culturally significant locations we have chosen. Geolocation enables us to reveal untold stories and otherwise hidden ideas. By using deliverable technologies that are accessible, I hope to reach larger audiences. My goal with all of my projects is to offer unexpected embodied experiences that in turn provoke conversation and initiate a broader cultural dialogue.

Nancy Baker Cahill
Method No. 13, 2018
AR (augmented reality) artwork with sound, accessible via the free 4th Wall app- wifi may be required for initial download

Nancy Baker Cahill
Method No. 13, 2018
AR (augmented reality) artwork with sound, accessible via the free 4th Wall app- wifi may be required for initial download

Biography
Nancy Baker Cahill is an artist working at the intersection of fine art, new media and activism. She is the Founder and Creative Director of 4th Wall, a free Augmented Reality (AR) public art platform. Through 4th Wall, she initiated Coordinates, an ongoing series of curated & site-specific AR public art exhibitions, including Defining Line (with artist Debra Scacco) along the LA river, and the city-wide Battlegrounds in New Orleans. She is the recipient of an ARC Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation and has been profiled by numerous national and international publications. Baker Cahill is a TEDx speaker and was the subject of a 2019 Bloomberg Media Art + Technology short documentary. In 2019, she received an “Impact Maker to Watch” award at LA City Hall and was named by the LA Times as one of the ARTS Faces of the Year. She was a 2019 Desert X Biennial artist and created a combination analog and AR installation for Facebook’s AIR program in Los Angeles. In 2020 she featured an AR drawing in 360º at LA’s Hammer Museum and created a site-specific AR public artwork for SXSW (to be exhibited in 2021). She is one of ten artist scholars in the Berggruen Institute’s inaugural 2020 Transformations of the Human Fellowship. Upcoming projects include Liberty Bell, a national, multi-site AR public artwork commissioned by Art Production Fund. Baker Cahill served for years on the Hollywood Public Art Advisory Board, and currently serves as an advisory board member at Fulcrum Arts. She is the current Chair of the Board of Directors at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions).