Artist Dustin Yellin Takes Us to the Not-So-Distant Future with AR Experience for the Tribeca Festival

Artist Dustin Yellin, in collaboration with the National Wildlife Federation, Droga5, Squint/Opera, Q Department, Mach1 and Vrai Pictures, today announced the launch of Procession, a new interactive artwork that lets anyone in the world place a Dustin Yellin sculpture in their immediate environment and bring the art to life by walking around and inside it, revealing hundreds of narratives within the piece. Set to debut globally at this year’s Tribeca Festival, Procession is a groundbreaking augmented-reality (AR) app experience set in a utopian world where human-created climate change wreaks havoc as you watch.

Procession is one of the first fine-art AR projects based on a realized sculpture to combine animation, collage and archival footage into an explorative interactive soundscape. It presents our near future, a period of global unrest and environmental destruction, spurred by raging flood waters and massive wildfires. Humanity is faced with a choice: living in ignorance or uniting to preserve what’s left of our planet.

“My goal has always been to democratise art and create a living, breathing canvas that can be affected by every participant who touches it. Procession presents our near future, a period of global unrest and environmental destruction, spurred by raging flood waters and massive wildfires,” said Dustin Yellin.

Through the accessibility of its art, Procession unites people in taking action to preserve our natural environment. Through education, awareness and a directive that links to National Wildlife Federation’s nonprofit climate initiatives, Procession joins the fight to preserve our delicate ecosystem before we lose it.

“The experience of becoming part of Dustin’s art makes it clear that each of us has an impact on our planet and when we choose to take the steps necessary to protect wildlife and the natural world, we will be able to create a more equitable and sustainable planet for everyone,” said Carey Stanton, Head of Innovation Partnerships for the National Wildlife Federation. “We are thrilled to be the wildlife conservation partner for Procession.”

Procession was created in a unique collaboration of established creative and production partners including global creative agency Droga5, creative studio Squint/Opera, music studios Q Department and Mach1, and immersive design studio Vrai Pictures.

“We’ve been working on this collaboration for quite some time, and it’s a pleasure to see the work of Dustin, Droga5 and our partners finally realized in such a pure, impactful way,” said Director of Innovation at Droga5 Justin Durazzo. “We’re really excited to deliver this interactive art piece in our rapidly evolving tech and climate landscape and hope everyone—regardless of their age, beliefs or background—will relate to it.”

“The partnership was driven by our desire to make this world more intricate and immersive, more fun and educational. Technology allowed us to add animation and special effects, social interactions and gaming achievements to create a brand new artwork that truly leverages the medium it is made with,“ said Director of Technology at Squint/Opera Elie Zananiri. “We are very proud of this collaboration and how the AR experience turned out.”