Statue Spot
Brief: Construct a narrative that will be revealed by interaction with the environment through a smartphone or other networked media device.
Within this modern age of technology, data and network coverage is more accessible than ever; our daily lives increasingly becoming more augmented with digital content through mobile devices. Be it through QR codes, GPS and augmented reality content is both locative and pervasive attached to everywhere we are. This project is concerned with the construction and communication of a sequential narrative by turning the invisible content that surrounds us into an augmented experience. A narrative is built within and communicated through a medium, in this case the smartphone.
I began by researching into existing methods and applications that explore locative and pervasive narrative within the environment, from AR, GPS and QR codes. The QR code is a link that connects one element to another, born in the Japanese automotive industry a QR code consists of black squares arranged in a grid on a white background; information is linked when the black squares are scanned and processed by a camera. Artist Scott Blake, makes interactive portraits built up of a series of QR codes and barcodes that when scanned reveal a hidden narrative within the artwork. Blake’s portraits illustrate how using the physical design of a QR code can highlight visual imagery, in turn emphasising a narrative; this is an aspect I found interesting and wanted to explore further.
Following QR codes GPS is another technological form that offers opportunities to express a story through, particularly locative narrative telling. Global Positions System provides positioning and location capabilities, operating independently of any telephonic internet reception. Stephen Lund uses GPS to create map illustrations, through the medium of Google maps Lund plots his image, then cycles the planned rout, tracking his GPS thus creating the imagery. The concept of using a map interested me, a journey and adventure can be created and experienced through locative technology such as GPS.
Augmented Reality is a direct or indirect view of a real world environment, where elements are augmented though computer generated sensory inputs, such as graphics, sound and GPS data. AR brings components of the digital world into the real world, changing a persons perception upon reality. Pokemon Go is a phenomenon brought to life through AR, formatted as a game Pokemon Go places Pokemon within the real world, allowing users to catch and own a variety of different Pokemon. The success of Pokemon Go, brings to notice the opportunities that AR can offer to enhancing a narrative experience, the balance of the real world and the augmented world is an aspect I wanted to experiment and play with, to further explore the journey that is manipulated through AR.
Another mobile digital application that explores AR is the Aurasma app. Aurasma uses AR to create an immersive and interactive platform, in which users can upload their own content within an environment, in turn producing a personalised AR experience. My research gathered enabled me to gain a better understanding of the technological formats that can be used within our environment to tell a sequential narrative, offering myself initial inspiration and aspects to take forward, such as the perception of illusion, manipulating a journey and revealing hidden secrets through interaction.
After gaining research, I went out into the environment and made a list of all the things that interested me, but potentially held an invisible narrative that could be brought to life through digital content. From this, I then began to draft initial ideas exploring themes of invisible history, invisible architecture and invisible community. First concepts ranged from playing with pot holes to generate a game of sort, to visualising the invisible conversations and communications that phone boxes hold and using road names and signs to compose a narrative or journey. However after much reflection I decided to go with another idea I explored; using AR and QR codes to bring statues to life, presenting them as living history and memories in turn highlighting the invisible past and architecture of the statues. I thought using statues as a subject would be interesting because, states are built as a static form, yet held within is abundance of meaning, thoughts but ultimately stories to bring to life.
With my chosen concept defined, I gave my project a name Statue Spot, and then started to plan my outcomes and consider how I would bring it to life through AR and QR codes. I decided to explore statues within Hastings, primarily for connivence but also Hastings offers a variety of statues and monuments highlighting different narratives within. I picked five statues to delve into, Continuum, Boer War Memorial, Spirit of Cricket, Lion and Unicorn and Statue of Queen Victoria. After much speculation I concluded that I wanted to highlight the narratives of the statues through animation, which were to be presented using the Aurasma app; accompanying the short animations was going to be a map indicating the locations of the five statues, this in turn generates a journey guiding the user on a continuing narrative. I went with Aurasma because I felt it was the best tool to bring the invisible content within the environment to life, placing the user in the scenario in turn generating a fulfilled AR experience. The platform of QR codes I felt was a little static and linear in the way it presented a narrative; Aurasma was a lot more interactive, playful and experimental.
With a plan for my outcomes established, I started work on the map. I wanted to make the map very illustrative, so that it enhanced the visual experience of Statue Spot in turn engaging better with the user. I firstly constructed a format for the map, then drafted up initial sketches to familiarise myself with the look and feel of each statue. Following I developed my rough samples into a flowing style along with founding a colour scheme, this in turn outlined a balance in visual imagery building consistency through the design of the map. After scanning my finalised illustrations and assets for the map, I composted all the elements within Ps ready for print.
With a plan for my outcomes established, I started work on the map. I wanted to make the map very illustrative, so that it enhanced the visual experience of Statue Spot in turn engaging better with the user. I firstly constructed a format for the map, then drafted up initial sketches to familiarise myself with the look and feel of each statue. Following I developed my rough samples into a flowing style along with founding a colour scheme, this in turn outlined a balance in visual imagery building consistency through the design of the map. After scanning my finalised illustrations and assets for the map, I composted all the elements within Ps ready for print.
A challenging wall occurred during the development of the animation. Initially I really struggled with formatting the logistics of producing an animation that could be used within the Aurasma app, normally my process for making an animation would be to create it and them upload it to an online platform like Vimeo. Unfortunately Aurasma only accepts files contained within a mobile device, of a certain size and format; so I had to learn and adapt a new working process and style. With the logistics arranged I created a rough story board and began drawing the animatic elements. My initial animation focused around the Statue of Queen Victoria and combined illustrative moving images with dialogue informing the invisible history and narrative to the statue. However I felt it wasn't right, and upon the presentation critique my doubts were confirmed, in turn the animation was viewed as to formatted and more of a history lesson than a engaging narrative; feedback suggested to be more more playful and experiment with how to present the information. Below is my initial outcome:
With this in mind I pondered for a while over how to adjust my animation to be more intriguing, captivating and appealing. In the end I found myself being purely experimental, exploring new animation processes and techniques, and creating ones of my own; through this purely playful approach I generated animations that I felt were a lot more enjoyable, lively and entertaining, in turn fulfilling an sequential narrative. In addition using garage band, I changed the music from the quite dreary and slow synth sounds, to a much more up beat, purely drum and precision soundtrack; this in turn generates more movement and rush to the animation, keeping the viewer excited for longer thus enhancing the visual excitement and narrative told. In addition using garage band, I changed the music from the quite dreary and slow synth sounds, to a much more up beat, purely drum and precision soundtrack; this in turn generates more movement and rush to the animation, keeping the viewer excited for longer thus enhancing the visual excitement and narrative told. Below are my amended outcomes:
Overall I am very happy with my two outcomes, the map is bright, colourful and illustrative, it engages with the audiences eye, in sequence reinforcing the an elated narrative journey that the user explores. My adapted accompanying animations are equally visually exciting and intriguing. With the adapted versions, the information and narrative is told through a purely illustrative and visual context, this in turn flips the animation from being linear and quite boring, to entertaining, enjoyable and inviting. The styling of both the map and the animations work in tandem together, creating a balance and continuity in design. Ultimately this project has been one of the most challenging, yet rewarding. My struggles began with the brief, how do you turn something invisible, visible? Then generating the animation that both told the narrative but engage successfully with interaction with digital content such as AR. It was only when I began to have fun experimenting with the animation, that I made sense of it all. Taking this project forward I want to generate the final two animations, and slightly change the colour scheme on the map so it flows a little better with the moving image. Yet through my two outcomes I feel an intriguing and engaging narrative is told, that brings the user and the environment together, to reveal signs, meanings and messages that are invisible.