Digital Art and Augmented Reality:  How New Technologies are Disrupting the Retail Landscape

The retail industry is evolving through the use of innovative technologies and creative place-making. Real estate owners, developers, and retailers are finding new ways to activate public and private spaces by creating places that enable their customers to have compelling experiences rather than simple commercial transactions. Digital technology and art are transforming the way people approach consumption in brick and mortar retail stores. Next generation digital art galleries have opened the door for people to interact with immersive art installations in ways they never have before.

Matt Hopkins, AIMCO’s Senior Director of Development, led a wide-ranging discussion on the ways in which new technologies are informing both the development of retails spaces and the ways in which we interact with them.

Accompanying Matt during the discussion were Robin Mosle, Managing Partner at Of Place, LLC, Carlos Cristerna, Principal and Rad Lab Director at Neoscape, and Sandro, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of ARTECHOUSE.

Robin is a place-maker extraordinaire with over thirty years of experience in the development, asset management and operation of mixed-use and retail centers.  Carlos is an experienced architect, marketer and storyteller with particular facility in the design and implementation of digital technologies.  Sandro is a curator and gallery owner specializing in the display and creation of immersive art experiences driven by technological innovation.

In Matt’s view Robin represented the physical environment in this discussion, Carlos represented the digital environment, and Sandro represented the marrying of the two into one experience.

Matt focused his introductory remarks on recent trends that have been influencing how people use and interact with “third places” between home and office:

• Same day delivery, diminishing the need to “just go shopping.”
• Information overload and the need for news delivery to be entertaining.
• Experience becoming part of the story; the expectation that the consumer will participate in the retail experience.
• Public data streams and not the “internet of things,” but the “internet of me,” whereby retailers can use public data to deliver real-world products and experiences that are individually tailored.
• The rapidly decreasing price of technology; e.g., the decrease in the cost of LED screens, which makes the delivery of digital experiences more feasible.

After Matt’s introductory remarks, Robin began the discussion by describing her experience of reimagining and repositioning the aging Channelside Bay Plaza mall in Tampa, which has now become the vibrant Sparkman Warf.

Robin reflected on the importance of new technologies and social media in the design and branding of Sparkman Warf, but emphasized that these technologies do not replace more traditional development and marketing skills.  Traditional skills merged with new approaches created the alchemy that made Sparkman Warf a success.

Robin knew immediately, e.g., that Channelside was too closed off to its neighbors and to its prime bayside location.  She envisioned an open plaza integrating the center with the aquarium next door and activating the waterfront in front of the center.  But how to activate that waterfront?  And how to brand the new center?

For that, Robin turned to “online listening” and social media marketing.  Online listening is the practice of observing a target demographic’s social media usage and other online interactions and habits to ascertain their preferences.  Using a social media consultant, Robin was able to determine what the target customer for the center was most likely to value in a mixed use center with a waterfront location.

The decision was made to activate the waterfront with shipping containers fitted out as “food trucks” each turned over to rising-star chefs from the area.  Because the new center itself had no brand identity, and, according to research data, the old center had negative brand equity, Robin built the brand of the new center around the social equity of these chefs.  She produced slick videos touting the chefs’ connection to the new center and hosted a dinner for social media influencers who, in turn, promoted the center to their many followers.

On-line listening also dictated that the new center have a sense of rootedness and authenticity, so Robin and her team branded the center around Stephen Sparkman, an early Tampa entrepreneur who helped create Tampa’s deep water harbor.

Sparkman Warf has continued to rely heavily on social media, particularly Instagram, to promote the center and the events being held there, but also to observe and determine what events best serve its customer base.

Carlos spoke next about the ways that digital technologies can help bring a vision to reality by enabling people to understand that vision.  Digital technologies can provide three-dimensional renderings shown in actual scale that enhance a viewer’s perception of a project in ways that two dimensional drawings cannot.

He cited, for example, the Jewel at Changi Airport in Singapore, a project the defies easy description, but involves interior gardens under a glass dome-like structure and an interior waterfall.  For years, the airport authority had a hard time understanding the vision for this new project and terminal addition and were reluctant to approve it.  Fortunately for Neoscape and the project’s backers, during that period of indecision, digital technology progressed at a rapid rate, making the production of a realistic, three-dimensional, virtual-reality view of the project possible.  After viewing the project in a virtual reality rendering, the officials at the airport indicated that they “got it” for the first time and approved the project.

Carlos emphasized that the rendering would not have been possible had it not been for tremendous advancements in computer procession power, real-time rendering, and virtual reality.  He indicated that some of the technologies used to render the Jewel were so new as to have been invented, or at least progressed to the point of practical application, only in the months prior to their demonstration to the airport authority.

Carlos indicated that these new technologies also have more everyday applications.  They are being used in real estate sales centers by developers and owners to help their retail and office tenants understand how available space will look when delivered.  Carlos emphasized that the same content can be made available to consumers in different forms — on a computer, on an iPad, on a TV screen, in virtual reality goggles, etc.  When Neoscape has provided multiple means of delivering content in a sales office, they have seen that each potential tenant/client gravitates toward the technology with which they are most comfortable.  The same information is delivered to each, but in the way that works best for each individual.

Carlos emphasized that technology is not the story, but enables the story to be told more effectively.

Next Sandro spoke about the development of ARTEHOUSE, another physical and virtual space that defies easy description on paper.  ARTECHOUSE provides a platform whereby digital artists can display their works in an immersive environment, where the art viewer interacts with, and becomes part of, the art installation.

Sandro indicated that technological advances were key to his work as well and indicated that he and his team often partner with their artists to show them how new technologies available at ARTECHOUSE can bring their digital visions into a new and more powerful reality.  The installations at ARTECHOUSE are collaborative in nature.  As Matt emphasized, Sandro bridges the space between the digital/virtual world and the physical world.

Sandro also brings a curator’s eye to his work, knowing from experience what is compelling, relevant and appealing.  Real estate owners and developers will increasingly need to turn to curators like Sandro for advice on what art and technology to include in their physical spaces.  Examples might include digital art installations that interact with visitors as they enter an office lobby or retail center, or “app-based” technologies where customers can look through their phones or other digital devices to see digital projections in the real world.  ARTECHOUSE, e.g., has developed and app that allows patrons to see three-dimensional images on their cocktails in the ARTECHOUSE bar.  Such new technologies are bringing moments of delight and wonder that build customer interest and loyalty and create social media buzz.

In the end, each speaker emphasized that technology is a tool, but that storytelling is a human gift.  We still need to tell the stories that attract and retain customers, but technology is enabling us to do so in a more tailored and effective way.  Technology can help make our retail centers and stores feel more personal, more authentic and more fun.  Customers will turn to brick and mortar retail stores less and less for mere commercial transactions and more and more for fun experiences that connect them to other people and to the brands they value.