Derek Dyer thinks individuals have two choices in terms of the augmented actuality know-how “that’s coming our way whether we like it or not.”

Dyer, government director for the Utah Arts Alliance, stated individuals can both embrace augmented actuality know-how — making it a “cool, good thing” — or they’ll “let it be a really bad (thing) … that’s going to make our lives worse.”

The Utah Arts Alliance sees the merging of artwork and know-how as a useful factor, he stated. That’s why it is attempting to get forward of the sport.

For occasion, Nov. 11-12 is the group’s annual Illuminate Festival, held on the Gateway and that includes indoor and out of doors artwork shows that merge know-how and paintings. On Nov. 11, as a part of the competition, the alliance is debuting its first-ever drone present at 8 p.m. at Library Square, the place 150 synchronized drones will create lit-up photos within the sky. And they’ve additionally created a number of augmented actuality apps, such because the SCANNOW AR app that enhances paintings positioned all through the town.

“Technology as an art is one of the most underrepresented art forms that we’ve really tried to foster here,” Dyer stated. “Salt Lake City is at the precipice of a renaissance of art. … We can be a global tourism draw if we support our artists.”

Dyer’s feedback got here throughout the Art for the Future panel held Thursday on the Lost Eden Gallery within the Gateway.

Dyer, together with Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, Weber State University artwork professor María del Mar González-González and JOYMOB founder Bahaa Chmait, mentioned the intersection of artwork, know-how and the town.

Mendenhall stated she’s been blissful to assist arts and group throughout her time as mayor — in actual fact, three full-time positions have been added to the Arts Council over the past funds, she stated, the primary Arts Council staffing improve in a decade.

Mendenhall stated the Arts Council helps group arts programming via all the things from festivals to grant packages, “and we are so proud to do that with our taxpayer dollars. … (Art) is good for the soul and the economy and it creates an authentic culture.”

Creating genuine experiences is what Chmait’s group is all about. JOYMOB focuses on creating human connection via occasions like dance events in streets and writing “love letters” which can be left in public locations.

Chmait stated rising up with Lebanese dad and mom in a “white Ukrainian Christian town” in Canada got here with some challenges, akin to his household wanting him to stay by old-world values in a group the place he was surrounded by the brand new world.

But these challenges gave him “the stepping stone to be a programmer, someone who programs our culture and my community,” he stated. “I think that we have a real opportunity here in Salt Lake City, especially with all the economic development (and) the new infrastructure … to truly shape Salt Lake City for future generations.”

“We’re looking to reinvent the way we think about public spaces and gathering,” he stated. “We create brave spaces for people to show up with their authentic selves.”

And González-González emphasised the significance of supporting various paintings.

She teaches Latin American artwork historical past, she stated, and Latin American artists are “woefully underrepresented” throughout the artwork group. That’s why, in her upcoming partnership with the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, she’s specializing in widening illustration inside predominantly white areas, she stated.

“I want us to be thinking about more nuanced and complex ways of self-representation,” she stated.