Augmented Reality for Digital Placemaking: Public Art in Clearwater, Florida

Through the use of digital placemaking, which combines physical spaces and virtual worlds, downtown locales become incubators for cultural heritage communication, fostering a sense of place attachment and strengthening community engagement. This paper details the reinvention of a public space in Clearwater, Florida with a large-scale mural program. We discuss the development of an interactive augmented reality (AR) app that utilizes a 3D terrestrial lidar scan to assist in the identification and testing of feature points within target images of the mural. The combination of multisensory stimuli, including physical cues in the built environment, and audiovisual cues from the app, reinforce the artwork's message of community empowerment, while enhancing the public perception of downtown Clearwater as a destination for art, culture, and technology.