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, Grand Rapids, Michigan from August 29 to October 15, 2017. You can also access and interact with these STORY FRAMES online or through your mobile devices.
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.
The Augmented Layers
Four distinct AUGMENTED LAYERS exist within each STORY FRAME, consisting of an IMAGE; a NARRATIVE (text); a PERFORMANCE (video), and an EVENT (a specific location within the city).
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.
A series of preliminary sketches that will develop over a two month period will be hosted here with the final work being presented at the Grand Rapids ArtPrize from September 20 to October 08, 2017.
The story unfolds through frames. Each frame contains an image, words, audio, and a video sequence, referencing the particular moment that the antagonist is experiencing.
The story and its associated frames exist within an augmented space that is accessible via a mobile device from anywhere in North America.
Each of these story frames are also associated with a specific location in and around the city of Grand Rapids and is pinned to a specific GPS location by an AR (Augmented Reality) object/marker.
Live Image Capture of AR Markers via mobile phone from “The Conversation (Part 01) Ritual Gestures” | San Francisco, 2013 | John Naccarato
When a specific marker is tapped, the story frame will open up as a window, where one may access the associated elements of that particular story frame — its image, words, audio, or video.
For those without access to a mobile device, the story with all its associated elements will be accessible on this site through their computer.
Also, prints relating to the story can be seen during the Grand Rapids ArtPrize (location yet to be determined).
Though each augmented story frame is accessible via a mobile device from anywhere in North America, those living or visiting Grand Rapids, Michigan during ArtPrize will also be able to navigate to the physical locations of where the story frames are unfolding.
The location of each frame is fixed via geo-location markers and overlaid onto a google map, so that the participant may trigger their Google GPS map locator and be given directions to that specific frame’s location. So if they wish, they can also navigate from story frame to story frame while also experiencing the journey between each frame — adding further to the story’s subtext in a very personal way. In other words, the participant is no longer only the spectator but very much part of the story.
They may also if they wish to snap a photo of themselves alongside the augmented image which appears suspended amidst their surrounding environment and share this via any of the popular sharing networks, adding another dimensional layer to the story.
Prints relating to the individual story frame images will also be on exhibition (at a yet to be determined location). Those visiting the exhibition may also utilize their mobile devices by pointing them at the images to access the text, audio and video associated with that particular image frame.
augmented reality, society of the spectacle, situationists, psychogeography, alienation, Guy Debord ]The Conversation, The Spaces We AR, TV Bug, Project Chorale, WWWAR, i Believe, We AR MOMA Towards an Augmented Reality, Me/di/at/ed, The Reorganization of Memory