Augmented Interventions: Re-defining Urban Interventions with AR and Open Data - Augmented Reality Art - page 83

4.3 NAMAland

NAMAland is a mobile AR artwork, built on the Layar platform (Fig. 4.2 ), which
uses Open Data and Augmented Reality to visualise and critique aspects of the Irish
financial collapse through an over-layering of the city of Dublin with a database
driven data layer identifying properties under the control of NAMA (The National
Assets Management Agency).
NAMA is an Irish Government agency 5 established in late 2009 to acquire bad
property loans from Irish banks with the aim of removing them from the banks'
balance sheets as a bailout mechanism. The agency, which was controversial from
the start, acquired properties (or their related mortgages) worth

C71 billion but
failed in its stated aim of bailing out the banks, culminating in Ireland entering
an IMF/EU bailout program in November 2010 due to the imminent collapse
of the banking system. Despite (or perhaps because of) its pivotal role in the
financial collapse NAMA was very secretive in its workings. Legally exempted
from Freedom of Information requirements, the agency was intent on shielding
its property portfolio, and the individuals and corporations involved, from public
scrutiny under the guise of 'commercial sensitivity'.

A

Fig. 4.2 NAMAland in operation on the iPhone, Conor McGarrigle (2010)

5 See nama.ie/about-us.