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of the space. One must begin to negotiate the space with an intrepid sense of
exploration. One begins by searching the space slowly and more intimately than
one would who is not brandishing a device. The AR visitor becomes aware of the
space to discover the AR art but in turn may realize how fully present in the space
we can become.
We can intensify our worlds experientially through an act of discovery with
AR. AR systematizes Lenin as he hovers over People's Park in a heart shaped
computer generated hallucination. Lenin becomes visible through a device and
digital window that situates him towards the visitor in a relationship wrought with
multiple interpretations of private, public and social identities. The visitor is being
fused in a subversive confrontation with a virtual object that references a history of
social systems in a place called People's Park, a circumstantial public space. The
majority of the visitors to the park are among the AR uninitiated and will never
know of the heart's existence. Through an adventure in search of AR art, comes
a way of knowing a city, a neighborhood park, and its inhabitants. Moreover, AR
upheaves a mundane occurrence in a park. By repositioning the visitor in the park
with Lenin's effigy a distance forms between the sense of self and the park. AR
causes the visitor to recognize the existence of the object, assimilate the object with
not only space but self and form a reaction. The reaction modifies self, park and self
with art. Step by step beginning with an invitation to discover the AR, the visitor
finds a way to identify the work and identify with it alongside the streets. Each of
the elements of this process intertwine one with another to create an experience of
multiplicity and action that involves space - artistic space, cyberspace, and mental
space. Virtual reality enhances reality (see Fig.
17.2
).
The visitor becomes complicit in the AR artwork by attending its exhibition in
the park. The visitor is yet another object, hovering among with virtual entities,
recognizing the existence of other objects. The visitor, through the act of visiting,
becomes the augmentation of the day. The visitor becomes the extra entity that
affords discovery and assimilation for the regular inhabitants of the park. AR and its
acolytes are shifting the reality and the perceptions of the people in the park. Those
who visit AR have the potential to be labelled as an outsider and to become suspect
in their activity.
The irony compounds itself as these events occur on May Day. May Day
coincides with International Workers' Day and typically involves rallies and
peaceful demonstrations in support of laborers and labor rights. On May Day
2013, there were two different demonstrations occurring in the People's Park. One
demonstration was the exhibition of AR art and the other was the demonstration by
the people who rallied to complain about the presence of a stranger, specifically the
AR acolyte in the park.
“arOCCUPY May Day” was an AR art exhibition and subversion directed
and produced by Mark Skwarek, a faculty member and researcher-in-residence at
Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Inspired by New York City's Occupy
movement, Skwarek re-built the encampment in AR. He extended the encampment
by inviting artists to create AR pieces that would enhance efforts to support the
Occupy Movement. AR allowed him to situate the protest in cities across the United
