Fact Craft presents Altered States: Augmented Reality (AR) and the Politics of Urban Memory

Unfortunately, this class has sold out. Add yourself to the waitlist here.

Whose stories dominate urban memory? Who is “allowed” to participate in the process of placemaking? How do we construct alternative modes of engaging with a public space?

Locative media, or location-aware interactive environments or technologies, include everything from mobile games to responsive installations to maps that use geospatial data. Artists and activists use locative technologies to present alternative narratives in a process of communal fact creation.

In this Fact Craft workshop, we will work specifically with augmented reality (AR) to layer multimedia on top of existing spaces. We will teach tactics for imagining alternative narratives as well as methods for critically observing and engaging with urban spaces. Over the course of two sessions, participants will learn how artists use a variety of mediums to augment and reclaim public space and how to create an AR piece that responds to and intervenes in a place of personal significance.

Materials: Participants will need to bring their own laptop to the workshop with Unity and Vuforia installed. A limited number of computers will be available on site. Installation instructions will be sent out prior to the workshop.

Audience: This workshop is intended for beginners with little technological experience, but it is also able to be scaled for more advanced students.

Price: $40.00

Zoë Bachman is interested in how we use technology to negotiate power, promote alternative narratives, and construct identities. Her interdisciplinary practice involves research, pedagogy, and creative uses of emerging technology. She currently works as a Curriculum Developer for Codecademy and is a member of The Illuminator, a guerrilla projection collective. She holds a masters degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU.

Rebecca Ricks is a new media technologist, researcher, and artist. Drawing on a background in international relations and politics, her work aims to probe the politics of online identity, using web development and experimental imaging techniques to create visual narrative experiences. She holds a masters degree from NYU-ITP.