The Day for Night Project / The Augmented City

The Day for Night Project (Preface)

A story can be told in many ways. It can be very personal, or an elaborate fiction, or even a means of revealing some forgotten truth. It can be delivered verbally, visually or through the written word. It can be long or short or have a beginning and end — or none at all. But what a story will always be, is an expression of being human — a way of connecting with each other.

The story I’m about to tell is not any different. And yet I lie. This is a story about a story within a story. It will unfold in a multitude of ways and through various media. This story will be experienced by the spectator through the lens of augmentation (via their mobile device), which will allow for alternative realities and viewpoints to be considered. The story will be broken into frames, with each frame allowing the spectator to experience the story as an image, or audio, or video, or simply through the written word. Also the story will unfold not in any one place but various locations throughout the city.

And perhaps most importantly, the story does not need to be experienced in sequence. The fragmentary experiencing the story allows the spectator to interact and develop their own fictionalized unfolding of the events taking place within the story.


The AUGMENTED STORY (The Exhibit)

The DAY for NIGHT Project was a Fiction-Based Interactive AR (Augmented Reality) project consisting of two parts: The Augmented Story and The Augmented City. The Augmented Story was made up of twenty-three (23) interactive and augmented Story Frames, which premiered at the FED GALLERIES (KCAD), Grand Rapids, Michigan between August 29 to October 15, 2017.

Day for Night AR Exhibit, The Day for Night Project (The Augmented Story), KCAD, Naccarato, 2017
The Day for Night Project (The Augmented Story) Exhibit, FED GALLERIES (KCAD), Grand Rapids, Michigan, Naccarato, 2017

The Augmented Story unfolds as narrative, revolving around an unnamed protagonist and his movements throughout the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and his chance encounter with the mysterious V. The protagonist’s movements – Story Frames, were mapped and broken into Days and Nights. These Story Frames were also enhanced with augmented experiences triggering four distinct elements or AUGMENTED LAYERS, made up of a corresponding Image; a Narrative Text; a Performance Related Video, and Story Marker (a specific Geo-located point within the city).


The Augmented Story Brochure and PDF

DAY for NIGHT Project, Augmented Story, original Project brochure and PDF, naccarato, 2017
DAY for NIGHT Project, Augmented Story, original Project brochure and PDF, naccarato, 2017

The Augmented City Story Markers

The Augmented City was made up of multiple Story Markers – distinctive GPS co-ordinates and landmarks throughout the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Some of these markers were site-specific to a location, consisting of landmarks, architectural structures and designs such as the mural found across from Fed Galleries. Others consist of non-site-specific elements such as street signs and could be triggered anywhere throughout the city.


The Augmented City Visual Location Markers

DAY for NIGHT Project, Augmented City, original Project brochure and PDF, naccarato, 2017
DAY for NIGHT Project, Augmented City, original Project brochure and PDF, naccarato, 2017

AR Mobile Experience


The AR App

To reveal and interact with the Augmented layers an APP was required called ‘BLIPPAR‘ and was available for mobile devices at the APPLE STORE or GOOGLE PLAY

Adding to the Augmented Story & City

Using the APP, one could take photos of the Augmented Story Frame overlaid to their specific surrounding creating a new merged reality.They could then upload the image (including a story text if they wanted) to their favourite social media, adding the hash tag #dayfornightproject, thus contributing to the ongoing DAY for NIGHT narrative.