The Arrival of a Train

When you have to choose between truth or legend, print the legend. In the legend of L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, audiences at the Lumières Brothers’ first public film screening ran from a train moving towards them on screen. The only problem? This did not happen. Audiences did not run - in fact, the film was not even shown that day. Nonetheless, this enduring image from 1895 is still used today to describe the immersive power of film. The closest we get to this mythical effect today is with technologies like Virtual and Augmented Reality. When experiencing these new, imagined realities, the audience member ducks and dives, trying to touch or avoid virtual objects that their brain tells them are physically there.

Throughout the spring and summer terms of 2023, the Royal College of Art and Snap Inc brought together a diverse group of student-researchers from twelve RCA Masters programmes to explore how Augmented Reality might impact our world. Students worked with artists, researchers and practitioners in the fields of social activism, critical thinking, performance, politics, ecology, accessibility and technology. The students used this learning to create eight projects that imagine potential futures for Augmented Reality using Snapchat’s open-source software, Lens Studio and wearable Augmented Reality glasses ‘Spectacles’.

During July and August 2023 Snap Inc and the Royal College of Art also held the first UK-based Snap Lens Lab. The lab consisted of sixteen young people that worked with artists, designers and engineers to explore what Augmented Reality is and can be, and how it can impact our world. Documentation of the projects created during the Snap Lens Lab will be displayed alongside the The Arrival of a Train activation.

（中文翻譯）
當你必須在真相和傳說之間做出選擇時，印刷傳說。在Lumières兄弟的第一次公開電影放映中，觀眾們在屏幕上看到一輛開往他們的火車時，從火車上跑開。唯一的問題是，這並沒有發生。觀眾們並沒有奔跑 - 實際上，那天甚至沒有播放這部電影。然而，這個自1895年以來持久的畫面仍然被用來形容電影的沉浸力。今天，我們最接近這種神話效果的情況是通過虛擬和擴增現實等技術。當體驗這些新的、想像中的現實時，觀眾會躲避、嘗試觸摸或避免他們的大腦告訴他們實際存在的虛擬物體。

在2023年的春季和夏季學期，倫敦皇家藝術學院和Snap Inc 聯合組織了來自十二個不同碩士課程的多樣化學生研究小組，探討擴增現實可能如何影響我們的世界。學生們與社會行動主義、批判性思維、表演、政治、生態、可及性和技術等領域的藝術家、研究人員和從業者合作。學生們利用這些經驗創作了八個項目，想像了使用Snapchat的開源軟件Lens Studio和可穿戴擴增現實眼鏡'Spectacles'的擴增現實的潛在未來。

在2023年7月和8月，Snap Inc和倫敦皇家藝術學院還舉辦了首個位於英國的Snap Lens實驗室。該實驗室由十六名年輕人組成，他們與藝術家、設計師和工程師合作，探討了擴增現實是什麼以及可以成為什麼，以及它如何影響我們的世界。Snap Lens實驗室期間創建的項目的文檔將與《火車進站》活動一起展出。