“Oh wow, you’re turning into an old woman! And I’m a Viking!” Two of us sat enraptured at XR Bar at ARTECHOUSE NYC (ATH NYC), an extended reality experience that fuses art with mixology. The drinks were unique and delicious (we’ll get to that later). The surrounding digital artwork was immersive, immensely trippy and ideally suited to experience lying down with a cocktail sippy cup in hand.
But it was the experience behind the bar counter that reeled us in. Using multiple cameras and AI image generation models, our likenesses morphed every 10 to 15 seconds into impressionist art. As bar entertainment goes, it was a hell of a lot more fun than staring at a TV.
But it didn’t distract (well, not too much) from the drinks. This fall, XR Bar crafted cocktails and mocktails inspired by “Flashback 5,” an exhibit celebrating five years of work from artists ranging from the collective fuse* to NASA (as in the space agency). They also paired these cocktails with special cards/markers that get activated through the Artechouse app, so you can see brilliant and funky extended reality art both on and around your drinks.
