The Voxel Bridge is a 600-foot-long, 23-foot-high art installation by artist Jessica Angel. The vinyl mural structure spans 19,000 square feet beneath the Cambie Bridge in Vancouver, Biennale. While the structure looks pretty convincing as an abstract art installation, that’s not all it is. It is complemented by three-dimensional (3D) technology accessible through a mobile phone app. Established as the largest blockchain-based augmented reality (AR) experience, Voxel Bridge offers participants an immersive, multisensory experience. Technological advancements provoke shifts in how we perceive, experience, and value art. In 1936, Walter Benjamin explored this in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.,” with film and photography being the methods in question. He argues that what withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the “aura” of the work of art. Aura, being the unique existence of the work of art, is determined by the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence, i.e., its physical material and ownership. Today, the combination of physical installation, virtual reality interactivity, and blockchain in the production of art suggests that digital technologies are forging a new perception of art shaped by devices, interactions, and virtual layers. In the age of digital art production, aura is redefined, with the art’s uniqueness extending beyond mere presence and distance.
Aura, as Benjamin explored, is tied to an object’s authenticity—the sum of its history, physical duration, and historical testimony. He emphasized physical material and location as essential elements for aura; this was true because the same could be said for reality itself. Reality was shaped by what is directly physical. What you did, said, or made mostly stayed within your immediate world. Things were slower. If you wrote a letter, it traveled for days; if you made art, only people nearby saw it. The sense of “being” was tied to where you were and who was around you. Now, with digital advancements, we exist partly in the cloud. We have digital social profiles and virtual networks that connect everyone across the globe. In these virtual spaces, identity and experience are no longer confined by location. One of these spaces is Virtual Reality (VR), which refers to a simulated, computer-generated environment that enables users to interact with an artificial, 3D visual and sensory environment. VR is hardly defined outside the digital scope. However, by separating the words “Virtual” and “Reality”, the definition becomes less straightforward. In philosophy, the virtual is described as something that is not real, but displays nearly all the qualities of the real. Virtual reality, then, is a realm where all virtual objects can be experienced as real. Augmented reality, a similar concept, merges the two worlds by bringing digital information into a user’s environment. For the Voxel Bridge, the viewer looks at the physical installation and, with their mobile phone or Oculus Lens, navigates through activating layers of animation and sound that correspond to the spot they are looking at. Each animated 3D voxel contains information about the artwork and the technologies it uses, including the creation, funding, governance, and live data from a blockchain network. Through this interaction, the artwork extends beyond the bridge’s painted surfaces into a digital dimension that responds to each person’s movement and perspective. The physical structure is the interface that the digital animations map onto; neither can be fully experienced without the other. As our sense of reality expands into the virtual, material form remains a crucial element of aura, but it no longer holds the same power on its own; it now depends on the viewer’s active engagement and interaction.
The engagement and interaction between art and the participant have also changed. For Benjamin, aura also represented a way of experiencing art that involved a sense of distance and uniqueness, a contemplative, serene encounter with an object. To stand before a painting or sculpture was to encounter time, effort, and ritual, a moment of human craftsmanship that demanded reverence. That has changed. With AR experiences depending on hardware (phones, headsets), software (apps, engines), and network conditions, the form and timing of what a participant receives are inseparable from these non-human actors. In practice, this means that two participants at the same spot on the bridge and at the same time can receive distinct versions of the work due to differences in device sensors, processing speeds, and even app updates. Technological tools partly replace human craftsmanship and mastery in the art. So, instead of standing before the artwork as passive admirers, we position ourselves as users, testing and adjusting to influence what we see. In doing so, the authority once held by the artist and the object is redistributed across multiple participants and systems.
As the experience of art becomes increasingly participatory and networked, the question of authenticity takes on new meaning. Digital assets can be copied perfectly and endlessly, erasing the notion of an “original.” Benjamin argues that mechanical reproduction replaces this singular existence with “a plurality of copies.” Blockchain technology redefines authenticity in AR experiences by using decentralized metadata records of the copies. The Voxel Bridge leverages blockchain to track interactions with the artwork. The AR animations use live data from a blockchain network. This means the moving parts and colors a viewer sees in the digital experience are a real-time, visual representation of the abstract data and activity happening on the blockchain. The network also serves as a public notebook that keeps track of everything related to the artwork, who created it, who viewed or interacted with it, and who owns it. By recording this information on a decentralized ledger, the system establishes a permanent, verifiable history. Authenticity of the artwork is based on this decentralized, permanent, and unique real-time data record. The original experience is no longer static or isolated; it is a dynamic, networked event.
Benjamin wrote that mechanical reproduction “detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition,” dissolving its ritual value and placing art within the reach of the masses and politics. With digital art production, that transformation has just deepened; the value of art is becoming multidimensional, just like the methods used to create it. Augmented Reality art invites participants to navigate a physical installation with layers of animation and sound, creating a personal, immersive experience that encourages curiosity, exploration, and connection. With the Voxel Bridge, each virtual voxel contains information about decentralized technologies, such as blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs. More AR art installations have similar functions. For example, Risa Puno’s Escape Room: Privilege places participants in environments with differing social privileges. At the end, everyone gathers to discuss their experiences — how it felt to be disadvantaged or empowered — and to connect that feeling to real-world privilege and inequality. In the digital era, art is being used to learn, communicate messages, and provoke social awareness. The value of art with AR merges exhibition with purpose and function.
Thus, Benjamin’s notion that art has not been what it was before the age of mechanical reproduction remains relevant today. Social change and technological progress continue to shape how we perceive art and the value we assign to it. With the emergence of photography and film, artistic value expanded beyond traditional aesthetics to include reproducibility, accessibility, and collective experience. With the digital era, the value changed again, focusing more on interaction and immersive experience. While I still cherish the heritage and aura that art once held, I also recognize the new role it plays that allows education, historical documentation, and social engagement through immersive experiences. The virtual space we now live in makes it easy to mass-communicate at an incredibly fast pace. In that world, we count on artworks that nurture empathy, love, and awareness. The Voxel Bridge by Jessica Angel embodies that idea. The artwork was eventually taken down after its exhibition at the #ArtProject2020: Vancouver Biennale Art and Technology Expo, but it still stands as a historical marker of how art’s essence continues to evolve.
Works Cited
Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.”
Illuminations. Translated by Harry Zohn, edited by Hannah Arendt, Schocken
Books, 1969, pp. 1-26.
“Voxel Bridge.” Jessica Angel Studio, 2024, jessicaangel.studio/works/voxelbridge/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
“What is augmented reality?” IBM, www.ibm.com/think/topics/augmented-reality/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.
Lowood, Henry, “virtual reality” Britannica,2024, www.britannica.com/technology/virtual-reality/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2025.