mARp My City

"mARp" is a term I have invented that means to "map with Augmented Reality."

"mARp My City" was a project proposal for a 2012 Creative Capital grant in emerging media. It did not ultimately receive funding, but is honored with a page on their "On Our Radar" website for projects to watch.

"mARp" describes the complete system I use, cobbled together out of various components: mobile AR app to view augmented reality content on site in the public realm, webservers to add content, googlemap to provide the spatial overview in an Internet browser, social media to communicate amongst participants and viewers of the mARp.

The full concept behind "mARp My City" is to create a crowd-sourced narrative for a city. Participants will be able to go to their favorite sites in the city and place augments and brief texts there using their smartphones. Once the augments have been placed, anyone can view them at that site on their smartphones, take screenshots of the artworks and upload them to the mARp. The augments and these screenshots will be accessible on a googlemap. Anyone on the Internet will be able to view documentation of the augments, but to experience the augments you must go to the site itself.

 

Biomer Skelters mARp - premiering June 2013 at FACT Liverpool

mARp example for Biomer Skelters project, 2013

The newest version of a mARp will premiere in June 2013 at FACT Liverpool's 10th anniversary exhibition as part of the project Biomer Skelters (with Will Pappenheimer). Participant-generated augmented reality artworks are automatically marked on an online googlemap, where viewers will later be able to add screenshots and commentary. Realized with a FACT ARtSENSE grant and Will Pappenheimer's Pace University/Verizon Thinkfinity grant.

 

"Transformation: Lehel" mARp

mARp prototype for "Transformation: Lehel," 2012

In October 2012 I created an initial mARp prototype as part of the exhibit "Transformation: Lehel" held in the St. Lukas Church in the Lehel neighborhood Munich, Germany. The ArcGIS online map showed locations of augmented reality artworks in Lehel with links to documentation, and links to launch the augments on mobile devices.

For more information go to "Transformation: Lehel" website.

 

Friend mARps, Private mARps

mARps for your circle of firends will be the social network of the future! Some will follow you around and some will be waiting for you at your favorite spot, your cafe, or your breakfast table.

Animals use scent to leave messages for each other, dogs mark their territories and we too will leave augmented reality notes on every corner for friends – "Cara amica, if you happen to be in the neighborhood, come by for a coffee."

Or we will send them to our lovers far away, in our private mARps for two – I create a rain of carnations for my lover in his favorite café in Lisbon; a rain of tulips in his favorite restaurant in Istanbul:

Go to Largo do Carmo, it is not far from your favorite cafe and there the carnations
will remind you of when you saw the soldiers putsch the dictator out of power ...

 

If it is cold and raining in Munich, he sends me a brilliant rain of ottoman tulips to brighten me up:

 

Are you in Paris? Go to the Louvre Pyramid, I have set the All Seeing Eye to watch over you ...

 

The mARp concept

I would like to create a mARp platform that integrates the different components I use into one system, and extends currently available functionality to make it easier for lay people (local residents & viewers) to participate and add content as well. As the technology is in constant development, the exact details of the project will develop over the years as well.