Since 1916 the Copa América has been South America’s main association football tournament. 95 years later, the tournament is turning to the cutting edge field of augmented reality to help fans connect with the tournament and discover important information.

This year the tournament is hosted by Argentina, and will feature the 10 members of the CONMEBOL (South American Football Confederation) plus Mexico and Japan. Android users can download the official Copa América app in the Android market to keep up with tournament items like the teams, players, schedules, scores and tables.

In addition, the app also makes use of Layar to provide location-based and visual information to users. The tournament takes place at several stadiums across Argentina, and holding your phone up will point you to the various locations. If a match is in progress, the teams playing will be displayed along with the stadium icon.

Users can also access information about each participating squad in augmented reality as the flags of each nation are displayed around you no matter where you are. Check out the video below to have a look at how the developers of this application, Grupo Esfera, have blended Layar into the Copa América app! You can also access the layer from the Layar app by searching for “Copa América”.

The tournament kicks off July 1st, and don’t forget that YouTube will be providing free live coverage of the entire tournament!

The 54th Venice Biennale Art Exhibition opens tomorrow, and just in case you’re not familiar, it has been among the top cultural events in the world for over a century, specializing in the avant-garde and showcasing the latest trends in contemporary art. With an historically “high art” reputation like that, it’s practically begging to be co-opted by guerilla Layar ARtists.

So if you make it out to Venice this weekend, or at least before the end of November, here are a few art installments that only the “Layar elite” can see:

Manifest.AR Intervention The Cyber ARtist group returns with a series of eight “uninvited” art layers (see the full list here) consisting of their own pavilions that are actually competing with the “physical reality” pavilions via Sander Veenhof’s Battling Pavilions layer.

The Don Pigeon Placed in Venice’s famous San Marco square, The Don Pigeon stands tall among the flock of real-life pigeons for a unique photo opportunity. According to its creators, “Forget the Biennale, forget the Guggenheim, this is what you want to see this summer!”

Where’s Franco As a modern-day renaissance man, you can be sure that James Franco will be participating in a variety of activities at the Biennale. With the Where’s Franco layer, you can spot him in nine locations throughout the exhibition and even cozy up to him for a photo (let’s face it, this is the closest you’ll ever get).

Image from the Gradually Melt the Sky exhibition invitation.

Last week we wrote about two Augmented Reality art shows opening this month in Philadelphia. Well, East Coasters, you can add two more to the list.

Some of Layar’s most innovative and active “ARtists” in the US, including Mark Skwarek, Will Pappenheimer and John Craig Freeman (along with other, internationally based, members of Manifest.AR like Sander Veenhof) kick off a new exhibition this Friday at Devotion Gallery in Brooklyn called Gradually Melt the Sky.

The exhibition runs from April 8 - May 1, and featured ARtwork includes a visualization of water contamination in the Williamsburg/Bushwick neighborhoods, a “Parade to Hope” and a re-creation of the 1989 Tiananman Protest.

The ARtists will then move these and other works to Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) from April 22 - May 8 for the Boston Cyberarts Festival. If you’re in the Boston area for the event, you can access the mobile site and ManifestAR layer here.

In the age of digital media where smartphones and tablets constantly fill our brains with rich media experiences, it is at times relaxing to escape the information overload with classic technology. Books!

And, boy, do the Dutch know how to show their appreciation for their literature. Starting with the inaugural event in 1932, the Netherlands has hosted Boekenweek, or “Book Week,” each March, with the exception of a few missed years early on. This celebration, which actually lasts 10 days, honors Dutch literature with a wide range of events, including book signings, galas and debates.

Since 1947, the festivities have been kicked off with the Boekenbal, or “Book Ball,” a highly coveted “Who’s Who” event for writers, publishers and famous Dutch people. A tradition among attendees of the Boekenbal is to steal a piece of art at the end of the night, and artists are asked to create works of art specifically for this purpose.

This year, one of the artists asked to contribute was Sander Veenhof, who you know from his augmented reality art projects like the Pentagon/White House Infiltr.AR and the Museum of Modern Art AR Exhibit. Veenhof created a virtual piece of art from the various pieces at the Stadsschouwburg, the venue for the Boekenbal. By using Layar, visitors could see the works and take a virtual piece home with them.

But the most remarkable piece of virtual art on display at the Boekenbal earlier this week was the tribute to the late Harry Mulisch, one of the most famous writers in the Netherlands. For over 50 years, Mulisch was a guest at the Boekenbal, and in recent years would take his place sitting on the staircase of the Stadsschouwburg.

Veenhof brought this memorable sight back to life with augmented reality, allowing the Boekenbal guests to relive their moments with Mulisch. One special guest, the late author’s son, provided an emotional moment as he opened Layar to see his father back in his rightful place on the stairs.

An artists’ rendering of the Twitter balloon inside the Oval Office.

Layar is nothing without its creative and highly-skilled developer community, so we thought it would be cool to include some blog posts from the mouth of one of the most renowned Layar developers/dreamers/artists we know.

Sander Veenhof (SNDRV) is the man behind some of the coolest and most talked about layers including Biggar, The Game of Life, and the MoMA AR Exhibition. We asked Sander to write about his latest collaboration with Mark Skwarek, a guerilla AR campaign that launched Friday, February 25 (Stay tuned for video coverage from this event as well).

Tweeting to Obama but not getting through? Since February 25th you can now reach him right at his desk in the Oval Office. A virtual Twitter balloon has been placed inside the White House and another one infiltrated the Pentagon using the GPS-based Augmented Reality browser, Layar. The balloons display the latest tweets containing the hashtags #OvalOfficeChat or #PentagonChat respectively.

The placement of the two Augmented Reality balloons was the mission of infiltr.AR, a live augmented reality infiltration event orchestrated from a temporary command centre at Club Karlsson in Amsterdam. It’s the latest experiment in crossing physical borders by members of the Manifest.AR artist group, best known for their previous infiltration project: an unofficial guerrilla exhibition inside the MoMA NYC last year in October.

An artists’ rendering of the Twitter balloon inside the Pentagon press room.

The virtual Twitter balloons inside the White House and the Pentagon can be seen ‘for real’ using Layar. Search and open the layer “INFILTRAR.” When not inside the two buildings, an ‘artist impression’ of the augmented space will appear, including an actual live copy of the Twitter balloon.

Since Manifest.AR members do not have press passes, and most probably never ever will, we are highly curious to see any screenshots of the virtual public message board inside the Pentagon press room, so journalists, give it your best shot! (And Tweet it hashtagged #pentagonchat please).

-Sander Veenhof and Mark Skwarek of Manifest.AR