In the dead of night, empty streets glow under magenta street lights while secrets hide within cyan-tinged shadows. The paintings of Keb Cerda‘s Dahlia resemble little of Metro Manila, where the Filpino artist calls home and where the streets are always filled with activity, regardless of the late hour. But the quiet depicted in these acrylic paintings is deceptive—viewed through an augmented reality app, the works come to life, overrun by digital characters running amok.
夜深人静，紫红色的路灯照亮空荡荡的街道，而暗绿色的阴影中，像是藏着不为人知的秘密。菲律宾艺术家 Keb Cerda 的《Dahlia》系列绘画作品和现实中的马尼拉大都会区并不太相似，因为这里的街道即便到了深夜也依旧热闹非凡。但是，这些丙烯画实际上却并非像其画面所描绘的那样平静 – 透过一个增强现实应用程序观看，这些作品突然生动起来，虚拟的人群来来往往，川流不息。
Keb’s father, Toti Cerda, is an accomplished painter, but the traditional medium was of little interest to Keb while growing up. He was far more interested in video games and puzzles. “I only went inside my father’s studio for stuff like tape and pencils so I could create mazes and games for my friends,” he recalls with a laugh. “That was all I thought about. I remember not showing up to soccer tryouts because my father bought me a PS1.”
Keb 的父亲 Toti Cerda 是一位颇负盛名的画家，但 Keb 小的时候对画画这种传统的艺术创作并不感兴趣，相反，他对电子游戏和拼图更感兴趣。“我小时候进父亲的工作室里也只是为了拿胶带和铅笔这些东西，因为我要用来和朋友玩迷宫和做游戏。”他笑着回忆说，“我当时满脑子都想着这些东西。我记得有一次要参加足球选拔赛，我都没有去，就是因为我父亲给我买了一台 PS1。”
He jokes that his dad “tricked” him into taking fine arts in college, but that’s where he fell in love with painting. Despite this newfound passion, his love for video games and technology never left him. In 2015, Cerda began experimenting with ways of combining augmented reality and traditional painting. Alongside his fiancee and a developer named Alvin Uy, Cerda created an app to alter artworks without damaging them, which he called the Omniscope. “Without committing a crime, I could collaborate with Da Vinci, Chuck Close, and Banksy.” Every painting series he’s created since then has used Omniscope in some form.
他开玩笑说自己是在父亲“诱骗”下才进了大学的美术专业，但在大学期间，他爱上了绘画，但他对视频游戏和科技的热爱也不会因此减少。2015 年，Keb 开始尝试将增强现实与传统绘画相结合。他的未婚妻 Alvin Uy 是一名程序开发员，两人一起开发了一个 App，在不破坏艺术品的情况下改造作品，他将这个 App 取名为 Omniscope（直译为：全息镜）。“我不用去盗画或做其它犯法的事情，也可以和达芬奇、查克·克罗斯（Chuck Close）和班克西合作了。”从那以后，他创作的每幅绘画作品或多或少都会用到 Omniscope。
Dahlia, Cerda’s most recent project, is split into two parts: a series of silent nightscapes and a collection painted in a graphic-novel style. The series’ titular main character, Dahlia, lives in a world secretly ruled by alien robots. They distract their human subjects through VR headsets that project illusions of a bright, happy world. A glitch in Dahlia’s headset exposes her to reality.
Opening Omniscope transforms these empty scenes into platform games. Each level is populated with 8-bit characters equipped with laser cannons; the controllable character, Dahlia, runs around blowing shit up and fights off the invaders.
While the project is playful and fun, it contains veiled social commentary: “It’s about our dependence on technology,” Cerda says. “But clearly I’m just as dependent—I’m using AR technology to prove my point.”
Keb 的最新作品《Dahlia》分为两个部分：宁静的夜景和绘画故事作品。该系列的同名主人公 Dahlia 生活在一个被外星机器人秘密统治的世界中。他们通过 VR 耳机，投射出一个明亮、快乐的世界，让人类活在这个幻象之中，直至某一天 Dahlia 的耳机出现故障后，她才恍然醒悟。
打开 Omniscope 后，空空如也的场景转换为平台游戏，每个关卡都有装备激光炮的 8-bit 人物；而可控主角 Dahlia 四处奔走射击，击爆入侵者。
在充满趣味的表面之下，这个项目也隐晦地传递着对社会的批判——“这个项目旨在揭示人们对科技的依赖。” Keb 说，“显然我自己也有这种依赖性，但我现在不正是用 AR 技术来证明这个观点吗？”
Download Omniscope and scroll back up to experience Keb Cerda’s paintings in full. For iOS devices, please visit the Apple App Store. For Android users, visit the Google Play Store.
快来下载 Omniscope 全方位体验 Keb Cerda 绘画中的场景吧！iOS 设备请访问苹果应用商店；Android 用户，请访问谷歌 Play 商店。
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Website: www.kebcerda.com
Instagram: @kebcerda
Contributor: Mike Steyels
Chinese Translation: Olivia Li
