Augmented Reality Activism - Augmented Reality Art - page 13

1.9 Augmented Reality for Protest

Possibly one of the most widely known and discussed AR activist protests was the
#arOCCUPYWALLSTREET (#arOWS) intervention at Wall Street (see Fig. 1.10 ).
#arOWS was the occupation of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Wall
Street area with AR by activists from around the world. #arOWS was a AR
component of the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET (OWS) movement. # arOWS was
started at the beginning of the OWS movement and has continued to participate
in OWS events ever since. #arOWS was inspired by OWS's inability to protest at
or near the NYSE and Wall Street area. Instead protesters were forced to camp
blocks away at Zucotti Park where they ended up creating the Occupy Camp. Wall
Street was all but closed off to local foot traffic and occupied by the New York
Police Department around the clock during the OWS movement at Zucotti Park.
Police were on heightened alert and protesters were strictly prohibited from entering
the NYSE area. Those who did faced being detainedand possibly arrested if they
attempted to do so. As it later turned out, the FBI had treated the OWS movement
as terrorists (Estes 2012 ).
#arOWS was the first organized mass protest using AR as a tool to project
the global community's voice to a highly contested location. Over 25 artists from

Fig. 1.10 #arOCCUPYWALLSTREET, Global AR protest in front of the NYSE, (2011) Screen-
shot (Images reproduced courtesy of the artist)