The Day for Night Project
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.
DAY for NIGHT is a Fiction-Based Interactive AR (Augmented Reality) Project which consists of two parts: The AUGMENTED STORY and The AUGMENTED CITY.
The AUGMENTED STORY is made up of twenty-three interactive and augmented STORY FRAMES, which are on exhibit at the FED GALLERIES (KCAD), Grand Rapids, Michigan from August 29 to October 15, 2017 and as part of ARTPRIZE 9.
The AUGMENTED CITY is made up of multiple STORY MARKERS, which are associated with the DAY for NIGHT narrative and located throughout the city of Grand Rapids.
The Augmented Story
The AUGMENTED STORY unfolds as narrative, which revolves around an unnamed protagonist; his movements throughout the city, and his chance encounter with the mysterious V.
The protagonist’s movements are mapped and broken into STORY FRAMES, which are in turn made up of ‘DAYS’ and their corresponding ‘NIGHTS’.
Each STORY FRAME recounts a certain event in the protagonist’s life, and is expressed by four distinct elements or AUGMENTED LAYERS, made up of an IMAGE; a NARRATIVE (text); a PERFORMANCE (video), and an EVENT (a specific location within the city).
The Augmented City
The AUGMENTED CITY is made up of multiple STORY MARKERS, which are also associated with the DAY for NIGHT narrative and located throughout the city of Grand Rapids.
Some of these markers are site-specific to the location, consisting of landmarks, architectural structures and designs such as the mural found across from Fed Galleries or the Blue Bridge. Others consist of non-site-specific elements such as street signs and can be triggered anywhere throughout the city.
The AR App
To reveal and interact with the AUGMENTED LAYERS an APP is required. The app is called ‘BLIPPAR‘ and is available for mobile devices at the APPLE STORE or GOOGLE PLAY
Adding to the Augmented Story & City https://www.youtube.com/embed/rB9oOT6MHKA?feature=oembed
Using the APP, you can take photos of the Augmented Story Frame overlaid to your surrounding creating new merged realities.Then upload the image (including a story text if you wish) to your favorite social media and add the hash tag #dayfornightproject, thus contributing to the ongoing DAY for NIGHT narrative. The artist will select a specific contribution each day and highlight it on his website and social media sites.
You can also forward any city landmarks, architectural structures and designs to the artist for consideration to become part of the AUGMENTED CITY (Markers).