The 4th Wall app is an augmented reality platform that allows users to experience public art in situ. The app features Nancy Baker Cahill’s LA studio in 360 degrees, four of her original virtual reality drawings translated into augmented reality, and a hologram of Baker Cahill discussing her work. The app’s updated features include “Coordinates,” an ongoing, collaborative public AR art exhibition that invites viewers to be physically present at specific locations. When viewers select this feature, they will be directed toward artworks created by artists that activate historically, politically, or culturally significant sites they have chosen. The “News” feature notes new artists’ artworks and sites as they appear in “Coordinates,” and artists and locations will also be updated regularly on 4thwallapp.org.

Users can pinch or expand Nancy Baker Cahill’s dimensional drawings and hologram to scale, rotate, place, and record them in the environment of their choice. They can walk and teleport through her LA studio in 360 degrees. Camera and video buttons allow viewers to take photos and record all AR experiences in any context, anywhere in the world. Photos and videos are automatically stored in viewers’ iPhoto collections when “Access to Photos” is enabled. Viewers are encouraged to share across social media platforms using the hashtags: #4thwallapp #Coordinates #4thwallcoordinates and any #AR iteration they choose.

As an artist, Nancy Baker Cahill is excited to expand the 4th Wall app AR public art platform to include fellow artists she admires for their topical and rigorous work, who have chosen where they would like a specific artwork to be experienced in situ. She invites viewers to visit their specific sites and experience their works in AR. The hope is that viewers all over the world respond to the drawings and harness their own creativity to place them in all kinds of contexts. The app aims to inspire thoughtful dialogue and expand our understanding of public art. The hope is that 4th Wall inspires a new understanding and engagement with AR as viewer-driven “public art” and democratizes access to fine art in general, available to almost anyone with a smartphone or tablet.