Metaverse Makeovers is a collaborative convergent media project that fuses the latest in augmented reality (AR) technologies, live art, broadcast streaming, and supermodern subcultures. Informed by the language and branding employed by the beauty industries, Metaverse Makeovers places contemporary perspectives on the art of maquillage, and mediated forms of embodiment under a seductive lens.

METAVERSE MAKEOVERS IN SHANGHAI                                                                                       Following on from previous performances in nail salons in Brisbane's multiculturally rich suburb Sunnybank as part of My Own Private Neon Oasis, and in FUR hairsalon as part of L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, the Metaverse Makeovers team will be taking augmented reality hologram manicure performances to Shanghai as part of JUE: Music + Art in March 2012; replicating the Metaverse Makeovers experience across to Shanghai's nail bars and clubs in collaboration with Chinese manicurists.

NEW SPECIAL FX HOLOGRAMS FOR NAILS and APPS
For Metaverse Makeovers' tour to Shanghai, the team will be designing a new and exclusive cosmetics range featuring a prismatic palette of special FX holograms created in response to China's nail bar culture. These special FX holograms take the form of iridescent pearls, black diamonds, orchids, phosphorescence, and neon lights in hot pink and ultraviolet shades; appearing from audiences' nails through an AR enhanced manicure and prototype app for iPhone and iPad2.

LIVE -STREAMING AND FILM DOCUMENTATION OF HOLOGRAM NAILS IN NAIL BARS IN SHANGHAI
The presentation of Metaverse Makeovers to Shanghai will be the work's premiere appearance in Asia, and will be created in collaboration with this futuristic city's nail bar community; catalyzing a trans-global re-envisioning of virtual make-up and highlighting the complex surfaces, facades, and hidden underworld of China’s beauty, luxury, and technology industries. This heady fusion of Augmented Reality performances and manicures, holographic visuals, and Shanghai's nail bar culture will be documented, edited, screened, and streamed; creating new viewing portals for the greater online/global community to engage with the multi-faceted and multi-dimensional Metaverse Makeovers world.                                              

  

      
                                                                                                                                                     FUNDS RAISED FROM THIS CAMPAIGN WILL BE DIRECTED TO THE FOLLOWING:
- Creation of new sets of special FX holograms inspired by Shanghai's glittering streets and nail bar underworld - designed by AR artist/designer Ben Ferns
- New 3d Scans portraits of collaborating Chinese nail technicians integrated into visual documentation of the project
- Film documentation, editing, and online upload of  Metaverse Makeovers in Shanghai with post-production by filmmaker Adele Wilkes
                                  
                                                                                                                                                 METAVERSE MAKEOVERS SHANGHAI TEAM
Director/Producer/Convergent Media Design: Thea Baumann
Augmented Reality Design: Ben Ferns
Performer/Face and Spokesperson of the Metaverse/ Community Facilitator: Shian Law
Film Post-Production: Adele Wilkes
                                                                                                                                                    ABOUT THE TEAM:
Thea Baumann - Director /Producer/ Convergent Media Design: conceived Metaverse Makeovers, designs the scenography and experience, brokers national, international and online presentation opportunities. Baumann's work is concerned with cross-cultural and transnational relationships, networked and digital culture, nomadic and mobile forms of production/curation, and contemporary art emerging from the Asia-Pacific region. She is Executive Producer of Aphids - an artist-led organisation focused on creating collaborations across artforms and borders.

Ben Ferns - Augmented Reality Designer: builds the AR components for Metaverse Makeovers, the special FX holographic 3d assets, develops the apps, and builds the live streaming infrastructure required to present and stream the work from the nail bars and salon sites.
Ferns is a Tokyo-based visual artist focusing on realtime video processing for performance and installations. His work explores the nascent visual grammar of augmented realities and their relationship with performers’ personas.

Shian Law - Performer and 'FACE of the Metaverse is a trained contemporary dancer. He facilitates relationships with Chinese beauty technicians, translates the work in Mandarin, and acts as the spokesperson (and FACE) of the Metaverse Makeovers' project.

Adele Wilkes - Filmmaker post-produces all footage related to the Metaverse Makeovers salon performances. She has written, directed and edited a number of her own films, including the recent documentary, Face, for ABC television.FOLLOW THE METAVERSE MAKEOVERS' NEON ROAD TO SHANGHAI:
*FACEBOOK IS BLOCKED IN CHINA - BUT YOU CAN STILL 'LIKE' US on FACEBOOK. LIKE' 'METAVERSE MAKEOVERS' . OR LIKE 'APHIDS' FOR REGULAR UPDATES

URL LAUNCHING SOON - 10th of March : http://www.metaverse-makeovers.net via Aphids' LABORATORY space here :http://aphids.net/in-laboratory/Metaverse_Makeovers
Live streams from Shanghai via our uStream channel here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/metaverse-makeovers    :
NEED MORE EYE CANDY - CHECK OUT HOLOGRAM HOLIDAY on VIMEO HERE