the Day for Night Project / The Augmented Story
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 (mounted prints), displayed at the FED GALLERIES (KCAD), Grand Rapids, Michigan between August 29 to October 15, 2017.
When a mobile device was pointed at any one of the Story Frames, an AR sequence would be triggered exposing three other layers – a text and a video clip related to the image as well as the location associated that the image – where that part of the narrative was unfolding.

The DAY for NIGHT Project unfolds as narrative, revolving 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 twenty-three (23) STORY FRAMES, which are in turn broken into ‘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 STORY: By Way of An Introduction
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: STORY FRAMES (Image and Narrative Text)
There are four distinct interactive elements incorporated into the AUGMENTED LAYERS, made up of an IMAGE; a NARRATIVE (text); a PERFORMANCE (video), and an EVENT (a specific location within the city). Below are the 23 images (mounted prints), used as part of the exhibition at the FED GALLERIES (KCAD), Grand Rapids, Michigan between August 29 to October 15, 2017.
On mobile devices, click on image to view the accompanying text.

♱♱♱ The night had sprung a leak. The Milky Way had pushed back hard against the rising black abyss — causing the day to be lost in the moment. He stood there looking up, lost in his count of a million shards of light pouring down on him — not daring to blink or chance a breath, for fear that this momentary ecstasy which now conspired to define him, would be lost forever — on the exhale. ♱♱♱

DAY 1.1 ♱♱♱ It was a cold December morning, the coldest he could recall in recent years. A thin layer of powdered snow, lay beneath his feet. Each step he took triggered a sharp resounding crack, in response to the contact between the soles of his boots and the frozen ground below. Stopping for a moment, he looked back and spotted the boot imprints that he’d left behind — conspicuous markings of his movement across the pond — ephemeral mappings of his passage through time. ♱♱♱

NIGHT 2.0 ♱♱♱ He had first met her the night before. He had said hi and she had smiled back. It had seemed a sad and knowing smile, a Mona Lisa smile he had thought. He had begun to wander what lay behind that smile, its story and its journey and what events had conspired to have her standing before him at that very moment. ♱♱♱

DAY 2.1 ♱♱♱ He had wakened to the sound of the jackhammers and voices drilling through the paper-thin walls of his apartment. More condo developments were on their way. Shadows danced off the bedroom walls mimicking the condo’s progress. Each day the shadows grew longer and paler. Soon there would be no light.. ♱♱♱

DAY 3.1 ♱♱♱ He found himself on a rooftop looking down at the mangle of hydro and phone wires that sliced the air — creating arbitrary grid patterns. What he enjoyed most in such moments were how the birds would perch themselves — balancing precariously like sentinels, guarding the unseen riches below. ♱♱♱

NIGHT 5.0 ♱♱♱ As a child, he would wait for hours at the top of the stairs awaiting the arrival of his father. They had secretly agreed upon a rendezvous to watch Have Gun Will Travel, a western on the B/W TV set. At one point, the protagonist is shot and begins to bleed. Alarmed, he turns to father and asks — why is his blood black? ♱♱♱

NIGHT 8.0 ♱♱♱ The TV screen had filled with white static. He sat transfixed unable to move. He had read somewhere that 1% of the static’s noise was a result of radiation — remnants from the Big Bang. He began wondering if extra-terrestrials weren’t perhaps using the noise for coded transmissions. ♱♱♱

DAY 8.1 ♱♱♱ He stared at a fixed point in space this space was abstract. made up of millions of possibilities. of atoms. of light. and numbers. the longer he stared, the more fixated he became. Inevitably, the point became as real as the rest of him. part of his reality. his identity. his lie. he could no longer turn back, or look away. ♱♱♱

DAY 9.1 ♱♱♱ He had made his way down to Division St. the flickering lights from a forgotten era. cracked. at the sound of his voice. from the corner of his eye, he thought he’d spotted a clocked figure, making its way down the alley amidst the impending darkness. fractured. lost. and forgotten. there seemed no escape ♱♱♱

NIGHT 11.0 ♱♱♱ V. came to realize that her life was defined by numbers which in turn was controlled by the passage of time. She’d begin and end her days by remembering the number of coffees, she ‘d drank, or the number of cigarettes she’d crushed beneath her feet Or the number of steps she’d take during her daily workouts in and around the neighborhood But when it came to the number of stars above her head, she remained in awe. She knew she would never be able to count them all. But each night she would lay back on that same patch of grass by the river and begin the count all over again ♱♱♱

DAY 11.1 ♱♱♱ Her bright orange wig added further to her surreal appearance generating a momentary smile across her face and making her wonder which Fellini movie she would best be suited for – then the smile left as quickly as it had first appeared. she pulled the wig off in one quick motion, exposing the bare surface ♱♱♱
THE DAY for NIGHT PROJECT, exhibition FED GALLERIES (KCAD)















THE DAY for NIGHT PROJECT, THE PERFORMANCE (VIDEOS)
Four distinct and interactive elements make up AUGMENTED LAYERS, which include an IMAGE; a NARRATIVE (text); a PERFORMANCE (video), and an EVENT (a specific location within the city).
Below is a compilation of the 23 PERFORMANCE (videos) associated with each of the 23 Story Markers
THE DAY for NIGHT PROJECT, THE AUGMENTED CITY
There were four distinct interactive elements incorporated into the AUGMENTED LAYERS, made up of an IMAGE; a NARRATIVE (text); a PERFORMANCE (video), and an EVENT (a specific location within the city). Below is a compilation of the 23 PERFORMANCE (video) associated with each of the 23 Story Markers
The AUGMENTED CITY was made up of multiple STORY MARKERS, (distinctive landmarks throughout the city) which were associated with the project’s AUGMENTED LAYERS, (IMAGE; NARRATIVE (text) and PERFORMANCE (video). By pointing one’s mobile device toward them, the AUGMENTED LAYERS would be triggered.

The AR App:
To reveal and interact with the AUGMENTED LAYERS an APP installed on one’s mobile device was required. The app was called ‘BLIPPAR‘ and was available at the APPLE STORE or GOOGLE PLAY. In the video below, the story marker #578752 is being targeted by the app in the mobile phone, triggering the associated performance video sequence of DAY 9.0
THE DAY for NIGHT PROJECT premiered at the FED GALLERIES (KCAD), Grand Rapids, Michigan from August 29 to October 15, 2017.