Photographer, visual artist, and documentarian Jordan Young was an Artist in Residence last season at the Fulton County Future Art Lab and focused his time on interviewing photographers documenting Atlanta’s queer club scene and photographing Atlantean’s eyes for a digital billboard sequence.

“It’s really such a special program, and I don’t know if Atlanta folks realize just how special it is,” Young said. “It’s the only program like it in the country that’s focusing city attention on supporting arts plus technology. I’ll also say in my experience that it’s the most supportive artist experience that I’ve had.”

Located at Underground Atlanta, the Futures Lab is a hidden gem. Underground Atlanta is often remembered as the mall and carnival it once was, but the once-bustling tourist destination has been repurposed into a little arts district under Alabama St.

The Futures Lab at the time of its founding was the only program like it in the country and has continued to pioneer different programs around Atlanta. It provides not only opportunities for artists to create and innovate with technology but also helps with programming at libraries across the county to introduce emerging art to the children of Atlanta. 

The Fulton County Public Art Lab brought VR headsets into Fulton libraries and introduced kids around the city to virtual reality. Kathleen Brown is the Art’s Education Coordinator for the Lab, and she is invested in teaching people how to engage with digital art. 

“I think what’s been cool is these VR workshops, which is mostly the way we interact with the community from ages 10 to 100,” Brown said. “It has made the library realize it’s an educational tool. It’s a way for them to share art and access to technology you might not have access to. So, they’re going to be purchasing their own headsets based on a funding grant.”

Brown said the convergence of technology and art has been the source of democratizing access to mediums like music, visuals, and video. Since the widespread access to cheap creative software available online and the ubiquity of computers, suddenly the door is open for anyone to create art. Young said he sees the future of Atlanta’s public art projects as something akin to Montreal, Canada’s approach.

“I’m a huge fan of the city of Montreal,” said Young, “and it’s one of these leading cities in terms of being a ‘smart city’ where they’ve incorporated a lot of infrastructure for allowing public art to happen. In their art district, they’ve got these utility poles with power, data and lights that make installations, public art, and projection mapping easy to come by and be activated.”

Young and Brown agree about using art as a tool for place-making. Every public installation creates a situation where art breaks through our day-to-day experiences and makes a special moment. 

“Thinking about place-making, what are the specific purposes and utilities that art can function to make life easier for people– to actually solve city problems,” Young said. “I think that is a ripe place for us to explore that potential. Given the stories that are here, I think we’re a very community-oriented place.”

“With public art in general, I’m obsessed with its sneakiness,” Brown said. “I mean that’s something that can sneak up on you in your day-to-day life or how you’re experiencing your life. So in the traditional public art sense, a sculpture that exists near your Marta station– you might not be noticing it until you need to notice it, and then it unlocks something within you.”

Follow Jordan Young: www.instagram.com/jordanyoung____?igsh=MWhiNTdibml4MHNydw== 

Written By Rei Low: x.com/_rocktimist