From Paper to Pixels: AR and Interactive Storytelling
I am Ayuko Onoue, a papercut artist and WebAR engineer from Japan. With a passion for blending traditional Japanese paper art with modern technologies, I create interactive artworks such as "AR papercut" and "papercut point & click picture book." My work is based on a combination of the delicate beauty of Japanese papers with the innovative potential of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
My journey into papercut art started since I was a child. My grandfather, who was in Indonesia during the World War II, had a collection of Wayang Kulit. They are traditional Indonesian shadow puppets and are made of leather. I fell into love with the puppets and started creating papercut arts, inspired by the Wayang Kulit’s intricate designs.
I use a Japanese design knife for cutting and Japanese colored papers, sometimes coloring white paper with Indian ink, watercolor, or pastel. To paste the papers, I use starch glue, which is neutral and water-soluble, preserving the quality of the paper over time. In addition to papercut arts, my love for writing fantasy stories has led me to make simple picture books with papercut arts. I wish to see my imaginary world come to life even more, which drives me to explore ways to bring life to my papercut using digital tools.
As a first step I created animations with papercut. However, I was not satisfied at all and wanted to make them more interactive. This means that I want to make my papercut arts react to my action. This desire led me to learn about AR (augmented reality). I found AR to be one of the most accessible ways to blend my fantasy world with reality. Among various AR techniques, I often use image recognition AR. It is the technology that you scan real-world 2D images and overlay 3D models, pictures video and more. I used to use Unity, a game engine, to create AR, but these days I implement WebAR using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It is more easy in both to develop and play AR than smartphone application.
In my artwork, I use papercuts as AR markers. It means, when you recognize the papercut on your device, it triggers to display AR contents. With AR papercut, you may feel the characters pop out from the paper art. It can blur the boundaries between reality and imagination.In addition to AR, I have created a point & click browser game using papercut. The title is "Pepa’s Adventure". The protagonist is a paper fairy girl called Pepa. She lived with Lex, a book fairy. One day, a scissor fairy cut and snatched away his pages, and Lex lost his power. Pepa went on an adventure to get back the stolen pages. This game is now released on Steam. I call it as a "game", but this is more like a picture book than a traditional game.
It takes me a long time to create both papercut arts and do programming. It is also not easy for me to maintain and updating the app by myself. Another difficulty for me is to express the warmth of paper digitally. Scanning papercuts for use in AR apps or games can diminish the tactile feel of the paper material. Despite these challenges, an opportunity to create something that bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds is incredibly rewarding.
Creating an art in the contemporary world is a way for me to bridge the gap between tradition and modernity. As the technology advances rapidly, we often lose touch with the tangible and the traditional. Each art that I create is an invitation to explore these worlds and to find a sense of wonder and connection in the blend of the old and the new. I am excited to create more interactive and immersive artworks that allow viewers to enjoy my fantasy worlds using cutting-edge technologies. I also would like to collaborate with other artists and technologists to create larger-scale interactive installations. I especially enjoy crafting stories that encourage people to live life on their own terms. My ultimate goal is to create arts that enlightens the real world by telling these inspiring stories beyond the barriers of language.
Website: https://kageori.pythonanywhere.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kageori_ar
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayuko-onoue/
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