Artist Interview: Heikki Korkala

I try to find the inner nature of the medium

Earlier this year, Artivive launched an open call inviting our community of artists to bring masterpieces of the Paris Musées to life using augmented reality. This project came about when the city of Paris launched an Open Content policy, making 150,000 works from the museum collections freely available.

In this interview series, we present to you the people behind the best submissions. This time we speak with the Finnish visual artist Heikki Korkala.

1. Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Heikki Korkala and I am a Finnish visual artist. As an artist, I am interested in experimenting with different media like painting, video, and digital art. My artistic approach is quite expressive as I try to find the inner nature of the medium and use it as a basis for my work.

2. How did you come across Artivive?

In school, we had a small course on virtual reality and your application was mentioned when our teacher showed us examples of augmented reality.

3. What inspired you to take part in our open call?

It seemed like a fun idea. Also, I had similar ideas of using already existing paintings as a “canvas” for my piece.

4. Which masterpiece from the collections did you choose and what was the concept behind your augmented reality extension?

Honoré Daumier’s Chess-Players (Les joueurs d’échecs) from 1863.
It’s a painting of two gentlemen playing chess. They are concentrating on the game and there is an amazing tension between them. So I took that and made my humoristic animation that tells the end of the story.

5. What do you find most exciting about augmented reality art?

I have experimented quite a lot with AR. And I must say that AR opens up new ways of combining different media. I think it is more a way of presenting than expressing.

6. What are you working on now and what are your future plans?

I work between realities: the real, an extended, and a virtual one. I think there are things to discover for at least a decade. I will certainly have an exhibition every now and then where I can present my ideas and results.

6. Any advice for those who would like to use augmented reality for their art practice?

Be creative and dare to experiment!

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