Digital presence has become a fundamental aspect of young people’s everyday lives. In a post-digital society, the question of whether digital technologies should be embraced or rejected is no longer relevant. In the field of education, the focus has shifted to the challenge of how digital topics and the close entanglement between students’ analog and digital worlds can be addressed constructively and sustainably in the classroom. The targeted use of Artivive in art education offers the opportunity to explore the entanglement in a creative and interactive way.

Artivive is an augmented reality tool that allows analogue artworks to be enhanced with digital content. Users scan an image with the app and see a video, animation, or another interactive layer on the screen that digitally complements the work.

This tool is particularly suitable for schools, as it allows students to create a direct connection to their everyday lives. Artivive offers the following advantages for art and design: It makes access to digital art more accessible, allows analogue and digital design to be linked, promotes media literacy, expands possibilities for expression, and increases motivation through participation.

The tool was tested on two educational levels – university and school – in order to examine interfaces, differences, and the respective applicability within the institutions.
At the university level, it was used in a course for teaching students of the subject Art and Design at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, based in Innsbruck. Together with the students, the use of Artivive was critically analyzed and reflected upon. Prior to this, discussions were held about the role of digitality in everyday life – particularly in the school context – and the challenges and potentials it entails. Subsequently, the students tested the tool in the context of their own artistic projects. They explored the question of how Artivive could meaningfully enhance their artwork, how analog and digital elements might be combined, and which challenges could arise in the process.

At the school level, in 2024, students in class 7AB at the Bischöfliches Gymnasium Paulinum Schwaz encountered the topic of exhibitions and the art market for the first time in their art and design class. They created a contribution to the exhibition "Ansichtssachen – Bilder aus und über Schwaz," which took place from June 14, 2024, to September 1, 2024, at the Rabalderhaus Schwaz.

The students' group work consisted of 13 photographs depicting views of places in Schwaz where the young people had had formative experiences or encounters. The photographs provided insight into the students' lives, representing snapshots and personal memories that they shared with their audience. Using the augmented reality tool Artivive, a second layer was created for these photographs. The students added a video to their photographic work, which could only be viewed by scanning the respective photographic work using the smartphone app Artivive. This added an interactive element to the students' group work, which resonated not only with young but also with older viewers of the exhibition.

Keywords: Artivive, augmented reality, technology, education, art.