Gasoline Station AR
Gas stations are significant 20th century landmarks that are well suited
for digital storytelling.
What do abandoned gas stations represent?
They could be considered typical everyday locations of unimportance but their gradual change and potential destruction or loss can affect those who remember them as pit-stops along journeys in the province of Alberta. The previous century of cultural, technological and economic dependence on fossil fuels has been described as Petroculture. It signifies a gradual growth and eventual reliance upon the economy of fuelling road trips of convenience, discovery and necessity. The rise and decline of the need for small town service stations is tied to advances in automation and declining populations.
University of Calgary digital arts associate professor Jean-René Leblanc, is commencing a 3-year research and visual art project that will investigate the role of petroleum culture in imagination. This research-creation study uses notions of gas stations and road trips as a jumping-off point, but does not aim for a historic or literal re-creation. It takes abandoned gas stations as rich points of departure and as sites for digital storytelling fuelled by past and present memory and experience, as well as future-focused imaginings.
Blog Posts/Works in Progress
Methodology – Locating Old Stations
Locating old gas stations in Alberta and discovering who the owner or tenant is can be a challenge. While we started with online applications for maps using views of the streets, it wasn’t always up-to-date. We have found that a benefit of gaining permission to scan these buildings is getting information of other buildings from locals for buildings that were not on our radar.
Methodology – Scouting the spaces around a Gas Station
One of the challenges with old gas stations that we have located in Alberta is the surrounding terrain, which can make it difficult to capture the photographs necessary to create a model. We use a drone and land-based photography to capture the detail necessary to prepare a model for our work. This post outlines some of the different obstacles and how we work around them.
Methodology – Image Capture Process
Our image capture process includes using ground-based photography to capture surface details of the sides of buildings, and drone imagery to capture detail of the roof. Where space is limited either due to spaces we cannot reach from the ground or air due to trees, other buildings or overhead power lines we use the capture device that is best suited for our needs.
Crossfield, Alberta
In Crossfield, Alberta, located between Olds and Calgary near the Queen Elizabeth highway, is a gas station from 1935. It has been added to over the past decades with an additional floor and service bay. An additional tall service bay for school busses was added in the 50’s. The owner and tenant were generous with their permission to capture this building as a 3D model for the art project. (this blog post includes an embedded 30Mb interactive model of the station)
The Project
This project is currently in the first phase, where we are gathering information and data that can be examined for inspiration. You could consider this information as a catalyst for creativity. This phase includes the scouting of potential buildings that have been gas stations or service-oriented locations. We have found 40 such buildings so far using various online tools, but many of them have been demolished since being captured on various mapping applications. For example, Sunset station in Redwater and a combination restaurant and station near Hanna both appear on satellite imagery but have disappeared from Google street view. This effect of digitally remembered locations only reinforces the transient nature of these kinds of structures.
It is our goal to use various technologies to create high resolution 3D models of the remaining gasoline stations and service buildings. These technologies include the use of drones, multiple photographs at ground level, and potentially LiDAR, where lasers are used to get accurate points of reference to create highly detailed models. We are attempting to gain permission to scan these locations properly, and potentially inside where owners have granted access. The models will be shared to communities and owners for their own use, and as records of the buildings should anything happen to them in the future.
For the purpose of this project the exteriors will be used to generate Augmented Reality artworks as described in Phase 2.
If you know of an interesting abandoned gas station you can let us know through the contact information so we can discuss with the current occupants how best to capture these sites with our various 3D scanning technologies.
The second phase of this project is to examine the 3D models that we have made from the gas stations we found, and any historical context we may have for each one. While 3D scanning can generate accurate and compelling models, the potential uses may require modifications to simplify the underlying construction of their form. Phase 2 is about making these models usable as the containers for creative interpretation, and creating artwork that can be experienced digitally through Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), or other formats.
The material we have gathered during the first phase of the project will be interpreted and represented in works of visual art that communicate new ideas about the history and contemporary uses of gasoline stations and their symbolic status in Alberta. The outside of each gas station will be true to the actual site, while the inside of each station will be created by the Speculative Design work of the creative team in conjunction with the choices selected by the end user / viewer at the time of artistic presentation. This artwork will be shared through a 3D app designed for mobile phones, sharing the exterior of the gasoline station and the creative interpretation of the interior.
Phase 3 will include the dissemination and discussion of the Augmented Reality phone application and any other methods of sharing the artwork created in Phase 2. This involves a robust dissemination plan that includes a comprehensive app launch strategy. This strategy will include the creation of a web landing page, app promotion through artist-run centres in Canada and other Canadian networks related to Canada’s art ecology, and by leveraging social media promotion by investing in App Store Optimization.
PRIVACY POLICY FOR MOBILE APPLICATION
Effective Date: 01/01/2023
Applicable to the Following Mobile Application:
Gasoline Station AR
Article 1 – DEFINITIONS
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Article 2 – GENERAL INFORMATION
This privacy policy (hereinafter “Privacy Policy”) describes how we collect and use the Personal Data that we receive about you, as well as your rights in relation to that Personal Data, when you visit our Mobile App and interact with it in any way, including passively.
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Article 3 -CONTACT:
The Party responsible for the processing of your personal data is as follows: Dr Jean-René Leblanc. The Data Controller may be contacted as follows:
jrleblan@ucalgary.ca
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University of Calgary
2500 University Drive NW
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Article 6 – THE PERSONAL DATA WE RECEIVE FROM YOU
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Article 7 – THE PERSONAL DATA WE RECEIVE AUTOMATICALLY
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Article 8 – HOW PERSONAL DATA IS STORED
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Personal Data is stored throughout your relationship with us. We delete your Personal Data upon request for cancellation of your account or other general request for the deletion of data.
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We primarily use your Personal Data to help us provide a better experience for you on our Mobile App and to provide you the services and/or information you may have requested, such as use of our Mobile App.
Information that does not identify you personally, but that may assist in providing us broad overviews of our customer base, will be used for market research or marketing efforts. Such information may include, but is not limited to, interests based on your cookies.
Personal Data that may be considering identifying may be used for the following:
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Article 10 – DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA
Although our policy is to maintain the privacy of your Personal Data as described herein, we may disclose your Personal Data if we believe that it is reasonable to do so in certain cases, in our sole and exclusive discretion. Such cases may include, but are not limited to:
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Article 14 – YOUR RIGHTS
You have many rights in relation to your Personal Data. Specifically, your rights are as follows:
– the right to be informed about the processing of your Personal Data;
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– the right to block any Personal Data processing in violation of any applicable law;
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Such rights can all be exercised by contacting us at the relevant contact information listed in this Privacy Policy.
Article 15 – CONTACT INFORMATION
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the way we collect information from you, or if you would like to launch a complaint about anything related to this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at the following email address: jrleblan@ucalgary.ca.
Dr. Leblanc, Principle Investigator, is an Associate Professor of Digital Arts at the University of Calgary. For twenty years, Dr. Leblanc has investigated notions of masculinity and gender performativity through his research-creation projects.
Denis Gadbois, Collaborator, is a Senior Instructor of Art at the University of Calgary. He is an established designer whose current practice focusses on virtual reality, panoramic/photosphere photography, and rapid prototyping.
Hesamaddin Rezaei, Photographer, is a recent MFA graduate from U of C, he has a background in literature and most of his works focus on pedagogic, collaborative, and participatory arts with an eye on the meaning of perception and considering practicing photography as an epistemological journey.
Gerry Straathof, Consultant, is a recent MFA graduate from UofC with a Master of Computing Science. His multimedia artwork examines his relationship with abandoned locations in the province, including homesteads, towns and industrial spaces. He uses 3D scanning, model making, programming and electronics in his work.
Arthur Valpato Batista, 3D artist, is a recent Master of Computing Science graduate from UofC. He has mainly worked as a developer, 3D generalist and UX/UI designer in several Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) applications for Medical Education/training and Art.
Project Updates
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