Future Arts Way: Other Earth Transforms Downtown Seattle into a 2.5-Mile Augmented Reality Art Experience

This summer, downtown Seattle becomes a portal into “Other Earth,” a large-scale augmented reality public art experience created by Future Arts. Launching in June 2026 to coincide with the FIFA World Cup, Future Arts Way: Other Earth 2026 invites visitors and residents to explore a 2.5‑mile interactive walking path filled with more than 35 AR stops, multisensory experiences, and community-rooted storytelling.

Running from June through September, the path stretches from the Pacific Science Center to the King Street Station and is open 24 hours a day, welcoming all ages. With a no-download wayfinder, the installation blends Coast Salish knowledge, Afrofuturistic perspectives, ecological storytelling, and mixed reality art to reimagine Seattle through an “other” lens.

The AR Walking Path “Arches to Clock Tower”

The centerpiece of the project is the “Arches to Clock Tower” walking route: an immersive, mixed-reality journey that overlays digital artworks, stories, and interactive ground markers across downtown. Each stop explores themes like flora, fauna, water, ecology, and ancestral memory, connecting visitors to small businesses, emerging arts spaces, and historical sites throughout the city.

Halfway through the path is Sound/s Flower Dance. This AR experience by Jose Gabriel Contreras shows flora blooming out of the large-scale relief sculpture Sound/s by Ivan Toth Depeña on the facade of the Benaroya Symphony Parking Garage. The vertical sculptural forms are derived from Reena Esmail’s composition RE|Member that has been translated visually into frequencies, amplitudes, and rhythmic qualities resulting in a physical interpretation of musical structure. RE|Member is the audio that plays when you engage with the AR experience, further connecting the digital and physical works. The AR works brings the flora of both Depeña and Esmail’s ancestral background into the artwork through augmented reality.

At the end of the 2.5-mile walking route are the last three stops: Other Earth Cedar Forest 1, Other Earth Cedar Forest 2, and Ancestral Future: The Taino Portal which can be viewed in and around the King Street Station Plaza.

Ancestral Future: The Taino Portal is an augmented reality installation that appears at the entrance of the exhibition Ancestral Future: Taíno Archives by Gabriel-Bello Díaz on view at ARTS at King Street Station. This AR experience brings an explosion of flowers and plants coming out of the main entrance to King Street Station, creating the feeling of stepping through a portal into another world, one where Indigenous past, present, and future exist at the same time.

Through a phone or device, viewers see a digital environment, over the physical entrance: PNW and Puerto Rican plants growing through the existing structure with ancestral symbols, and landscapes inspired by Taíno, Arawak, and Borikén culture. The environment feels both futuristic and ancient, blending nature with imagined cities and spiritual symbolism.

The work is designed to feel immersive, reflective, and slightly surreal, like walking between memory and possibility. It invites viewers to slow down and notice what may be hidden beneath everyday spaces: history, language, land, and cultural survival.

A Cultural Moment on a Global Stage

With all of the visitors during the 2026 World Cup, Seattle is entering what people are calling its “second World’s Fair moment.” Future Arts aims to make that moment meaningful. Instead of relying on spectacle, Other Earth creates movement, discovery, and local spending through a civic narrative rooted in art, culture, and community. For Future Arts, the project is also a response to the region’s widening wage gap between tech and arts sectors. By bringing together technologists, artists, nonprofits, and small businesses, the organization hopes to create a long-term asset for the city and its creative economy.

About Future Arts Way

Future Arts Way is Future Arts’ largest flagship public art initiative, stemming from previous pilots. Agog: The Immersive Media Institute is the title funding organization, with The Office of Arts and Culture as a sponsor, support for community programming by 4Culture, Seattle Magazine as a Media Partner, and Downtown Seattle Association and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber as civic partners.

Future Arts Way is a city-scale augmented reality art experience launching in 2026 during the FIFA World Cup and remaining live through the end of 2026, connecting visitors and residents to Seattle’s rich history and culture through mixed reality storytelling and interactive public art.

About Future Arts

Future Arts is a women-led nonprofit in its 5th year, creating programming and opportunities to bring tech-forward, accessible and immersive art to Seattle by resourcing underserved artists and storytellers working with technologies. Our work aims to bridge the wage and social gap between the tech world and the creatives and culture bearers who sustain us. At Future Arts, technology does not shape our essence, but is a mirror of our shared human values, behaviors, and passions. The way we design, use, and interact with technology reveals a lot about our collective and individual artistic identities. Our values are inspired by emergent strategies of nature and our systems are powered by our communities.