(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- A true artistic collaboration is taking place between students in the Asbury Park Music Foundation (APMF) Music Business & Technology program and the Transparent Clinch Gallery. The recent premiere of a student-developed Instagram effect, which was created using augmented reality, coincided with the May 13 opening of Danny Clinch’s new Unseen exhibit, which features previously unreleased photographs taken by the world-renowned music photographer.

Gallery visitors can activate the effect on their phone using Instagram while interacting with student-created animations and beats. The effect is free, but users are encouraged make a donation to support APMF’s life-changing music programs, which provide under-resourced youth with confidence, discipline and relationships that improve their future success and economic mobility.

The Foundation’s Music Business & Technology (MB&T) program educates and equips under-resourced youth with career-focused opportunities in entertainment. Students within the program explore new ways of expressing their creativity through Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), live stream production, and music-based game design. Initial funding for MB&T was provided through a $110,000 grant from Impact 100 Jersey Coast. Impact 100 unites women to make a lasting impact by collectively funding transformative grants in the Jersey Coast region.  

“The vision for our Music Business & Technology (MB&T) program is for students to Experience, Explore, and Experiment using next-generation ways of creative expression. We want our kids to become the future engineers and creative problem-solvers that will represent the rise of Asbury Park,” said Ryan Gaumond, APMF Youth Education Program Director. This begins by creating educational opportunities and access to technology that will empower our student’s imaginations.”

“We’re seeing our kids transform from consumers of media to inventors of new media, and this first AR project represents the future in which our students interact with the world,” he continued. This blending of digital interactivity with real-world surroundings is called Augmented Reality, and it’s the technology that powers apps like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. Billboard Magazine has identified AR Developers as one of the top future careers in the music industry.

“For our first AR experience, ‘Unseen’, we explored what it would look like to have a live musician on a stage performing alongside digital animations on a user’s mobile screen. This AR experience would be unseen in the real world but is seen through the lens of our Instagram effect. This enables audience members to become the camera operators as they film and share the AR experience with their followers across social media,” Gaumond said.

“Asbury Park Music Foundation is thrilled to partner directly with the Transparent Clinch Gallery. Danny and Maria Clinch and Tina Kerekes have been tremendous supporters of Asbury Park and APMF for many years, and we’re excited to share this experience with visitors at Danny’s new Unseen exhibit. Our students will continue to develop new versions of the ‘Unseen’ effect and we hope to create new communal AR experiences for stages across Asbury Park,” said APMF board member Jim Lenskold, who led the MB&T program design and launch for the Foundation.  

To learn more about MB&T and the other educational youth programs run by APMF, visit AsburyParkMusicLives.org and to experience the ‘Unseen’ effect, visit https://mbt.asburyparkmusiclives.org using your phone. 

APMF provides music-based programs, events, and resources that generate opportunities for our youth, artists, and community to succeed and build on Asbury Park’s legacy as a thriving, music-rich city by the sea. Funds raised by APMF support youth music programs, including in-school music classes, after-school music programs and scholarships for under-resourced youth to attend Lakehouse Music Academy.  Visit AsburyParkMusicLives.org for more information.