Location-based AR artwork trail

BoodjAR

Place-based augmented reality artworks created for 10 Nights in Port.

Mobile AR 2023 Public exhibition

BoodjAR was a location-based augmented reality project created for 10 Nights in Port, bringing a series of public artworks into mobile AR across Walyalup / Fremantle. The work sat at the intersection of public art, cultural storytelling, mobile performance, and Unity-based technical problem solving.

My role focused on Unity development, AR implementation, shaders, and helping each artwork survive the realities of mobile devices, outdoor locations, and public use. Each piece had its own creative direction, which meant the technical work changed from artwork to artwork rather than following one repeated template.

Challenge

BoodjAR was not one AR effect repeated several times. It was a collection of distinct artworks, each with different visual logic, animation needs, site constraints, and technical risks.

The project needed to work outdoors on mobile devices, often with transparent or layered visuals, animated models, spatial alignment, audio timing, and locations where tracking and orientation were not always reliable. That meant the work involved both creative implementation and a lot of practical problem solving.

Approach

I treated each artwork as its own technical brief. Some needed custom shaders and UV work, some needed mobile-friendly transparency solutions, some needed careful world alignment, and others needed optimisation so the experience would remain stable on phones.

The wider goal was to support the artists' intent while making sure the AR scenes could actually function in public. That meant finding workarounds for shader features that did not translate cleanly to AR or mobile, reducing overdraw where transparent layers became expensive, and testing how the work behaved in the physical places where people would experience it.

Outcome

BoodjAR became a public AR artwork trail that presented multiple digital works through mobile devices during 10 Nights in Port. It was also nominated for a WA Screen Culture Award in the VR/AR category, which was a meaningful recognition even though the project was not ultimately selected as the winner.

It was a useful project because every artwork exposed a different kind of AR production problem: timing, shaders, scanning, rigging, spatial tracking, mobile rendering, and environmental alignment.

The gallery below breaks down the main artworks and the technical thinking behind each one.

Unity scene showing a group of coloured human figures arranged for an augmented reality artwork
My Mob. Your Mob. Same Mob. This piece needed the figures to animate in time with an audio track. As the story progressed, colour travelled from model to model as if a projected light source was passing through the group, which required a custom shader and a custom UV layer so the effect could line up across the models.
Unity editor screenshot showing a particle-like augmented reality shader effect
Manjaree Miyaldjan The technical challenge was making a transparent, double-sided shader feel present in AR without relying on helper shader features that failed on mobile. The beach location also required careful orientation work, with repeated readings used to estimate the correct ocean-facing direction despite rotational inaccuracies.
Rigged scanned dingo model shown in a 3D editor
Dwert Djinaniny arm Boodja This artwork used a scanned and cleaned-up model that was rigged and animated to move through the scene. My work focused on bringing the asset into the AR build and making sure it aligned correctly with the ground and the intended physical location.
Stylised dingo model with animated visual effects in a 3D editor
Dwertawirrinup Dreams This scene combined a walking dingo, a central fire, story audio, sound effects, and visual effects. The work was about layering those elements so the story remained clear while the AR scene still felt alive.
Abstract black and white river artwork shown as a 3D AR element
Dabakarn Dabakarn was an abstract side-on river piece, with objects surfacing from behind the river plane. Shells, rocks, and other forms needed to drift and appear through the moving river without breaking the illusion.
Large colourful abstract 3D form in Unity
Waabiny Waabiny was primarily a scale and tracking challenge. The artists wanted visitors to enter and move around a shifting cave-like form, including moments where people would point their phones up into the sky, so the piece needed extra testing to keep the experience stable and comfortable.
BoodjAR team members photographed at the WA Screen Culture Awards
WA Screen Culture Awards nomination BoodjAR was nominated in the VR/AR category at the WA Screen Culture Awards. It was not ultimately selected as the winner, but the nomination was still a meaningful recognition of the collaborative work behind the project.