DW@U21

|AR plan - test, not quite there yet... | Flying seed, planting surreal |

Augmented Deptford [working title]

The project is developed from the initial concept of a virtual art gallery placed in a public space, where the artworks are displayed and viewed through an Augmented Reality application. It explores the AR technology and the ideas of digital architectures. It is an experiment, a test and the starting point for more advanced and resolved application in the future.

The aim is to create joyful, curious and immersive environments consisting of a series of virtual spatial-objects. These take sculptural forms and construct a series of digital compositions planted across the site. A series of points has been selected to arrange those. Each of them, apart from digital existence, has a trace in the physical world. Initially positioned at junctions, edges, gaps and corners to act as attention magnets, in order to then grow and digitally expand. The physical trails act as triggers for the virtual architectures to be activated; they are manifestations leaving a trail in the real world.

The initial forms derive from earlier, mainly abstract drawings, but are also influenced by botanical illustrations, as well as abstract and surreal forms in art. They are intended to be visually distinct, but spatially interwoven into the context of the real, physical world.

The project could be metaphorically rephrased as a ‘Virtual Sculpture Garden’.

| Self Collapsing Table |

|previous work recap + suggested reading references|

| TESTING TOOLS | PLAYTIME | a test 3d model reinterpretation of an old drawing. #justtesting

AR test_008 [virtual gallery concept]

OBSERVATION 2.0

Observe the street, from time to time, with some concern for system perhaps. Apply yourself. Take your time. Note down the place: the terrace of a café near the junction of the Rue de Bac and the Boulevard Saint-Germain

the time: seven o' clock in the evening the date: 15 May 1973 the weather: set fair

Note down what you can see. Anything worthy of note going on. Do you know how to see what's worthy of note? Is there anything that strikes you?

Nothing strikes you. You don't know how to see.

You must set about it more slowly, almost stupidly. Force yourself to write down what is of no interest, what is most obvious, most common, most colourless.

[…]

Carry on Until the scene becomes improbable until you have the impression, for the briefest of moments, that you are in a strange town or, better still, until you can no longer understand what is happening or is not happening, until the whole place becomes strange, and you no longer even know that this is what is called a town, a street, buildings, pavements . . .

Make torrential rain fall, smash everything, make grass grow, replace the people by cows and, where the Rue de Bac meets the Boulevard Saint-Germain, make King Kong appear, or Tex Avery's herculean mouse, towering a hundred metres above the roofs of the buildings!

Perec, G (2008). Species of spaces and other pieces. London: Penguin.

[Folding Deptford played in reverse]

Stages of ‘folding Deptford’ exercise show the axis of folds and the areas that were erased as a result of folding. Despite the folds, the initial image seems to be correct as perspectives almost match, the high street continues, and the train track is uninterrupted (shorter journey time!). The following stages reveal the areas that were removed through folding.

The ‘folded Deptford’ was created as a result of turning a ‘real image’ into a ‘mental image’ of the place. It is meant to be a ‘set’ for the ‘banana story’ [see post below]

While considering various ways of extracting and notating information gained from site observations I had a chance to attend a Bryan Cantley lecture. Despite being familiar with his work for a long time now, it was a great opportunity to borrow some of the terminology. Looking back at my [limited] notes [above], it appeared to me that these suit quite well to describe the things I’m trying to do. Maybe not directly, but they can be transferred and applied in a new context or project; and in this case were actually rather close.

The image above is a photo of a photo of my notes made during the lecture which is overlaid with a set of new notes on top; which now printed again can be found as a new layer of information on my wall, or in this post. ‘Layering at work’

Apart from key words, and phrases it contains my addition. It is a ‘possible future path of a banana’ – an idea of little story that was triggered when the ‘trajectory of an object’ was mentioned. For some reason - in my mind - I had limited the application of movement trajectories mainly to people, animals and cars etc. When applied to objects which cannot move themselves, but need to be carried, or pushed, or thrown – the whole concept becomes much more playful, and we can see things from a new perspective; add other details.

And as you can see above, I also noted that it was very urgent to sketch the banana story, so there it is:

Obviously the story is not very complex, but it wasn’t about the story, it was about the idea behind it and the way to illustrate it. It can be developed much further and applied in other scenarios. I have already thought about the prequel: ‘probable past trajectory of a banana’ – it had to come from somewhere, right?

[It may sound satirical, but in fact couldn’t be more realistic. Nowadays most of the products, processes and exchanges are tracked through complex systems created by new technologies. There are number of projects addressing similar ideas (trash track by MIT senseable city lab, etc.)]

Being serious about going bananas, I started the sketch. It was meant to be a small area of high street with a few buildings behind it, and a tower block nearby. Sounds about right, but when I looked at aerial photo, it didn’t quite match up with a Mental Map of Deptford created in my head. To make sure the banana story works - following my previous experiment with warping the area - I decided to ‘slightly fold’ Deptford to match the one from my memories.

All jokes aside, it was a useful and interesting exercise. The ‘possible future path of a banana’ takes place in the ‘folded Deptford’, rather than the real one. The next post will show the axis of folds and zones erased by them.