Joshua Dickinson

Exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2025 | New Media Architectures: Vancouver

Heron’s Soundscape is a generative musical composition designed as an interactive augmented reality (AR) experience, to be played by participants using mobile devices and the “Heron’s Dreamscape” mural as a visual score. Sound and visual accompaniment is created in real-time through participants’ direct interactions with the mural.

Audience members create one or more “performances” of the piece determined by their choices and interactions, including the angles, locations, and paths they trace visually with their mobile devices while hearing the results of each engagement in relation to the images presented upon their device’s viewfinder.

Check it out if you’re in Downtown Vancouver:
https://amusesmile.github.io/HeronsSoundscape

A revisiting of the New Media Architectures: Vancouver exhibition at SIGGRAPH 2025 which featured augmented reality (AR) works by eight artists in dialogue with “Heron’s Dreamscape”, a vibrant public mural by artist Priscilla Yu. Participating artists included: Jiwon Ham & Ana María Cárdenas, Joshua Dickinson, Sahar Sajadieh & Manaswi Mishra, Mike Rader, Darya Ramezani & Gene Anthony Santiago-Holt, and Priscilla Yu. Curated by: Miriam Esquitín, Johannes DeYoung, and Gustavo Alfonso Rincon. The exhibition reimagined the role of public art through digital augmentation, activating the mural as a living interface between place, community, and technology. Our discussion will delve into the collaborative process behind the exhibition and the evolving relationship between physical murals and digital interventions. Together, we’ll explore how site-specific digital media can expand the narrative capacity of public artworks, deepen community engagement, and reframe our experience of urban environments. Through an interdisciplinary lens, the conversation will address the potentials and challenges of blending artistic traditions with emerging technologies — and what it means to co-author public space in the digital age. All audience members will gain insight into the artistic, curatorial, and technical approaches and visions that shaped the exhibition, while reflecting on the broader cultural impact of art in augmented urban landscapes. This SPARKS event will feature artists Joshua Dickinson, Jiwon Ham, Ana María Cárdenas, Mike Rader, and Sahar Sajadieh in dialogue with curators Miriam Equitín, Gustavo Rincon, and Johannes DeYoung. Acknowledgements: This exhibition is organized in partnership with ACM SIGGRAPH, ACM SIGGRAPH DAC standing committee, Bentall Centre, and Downtown Van.