Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
around the world participated in the event covering the Wall Street area with over
400 protest related augments. At Wall Street AR excited a new group of the global
community about the OWS movement. Many of whom would not be able to reach
Wall Street due to real world obstacles such as distance and travel costs. These
people created messages and protest works that were seen heard from Wall Street to
the other side of the earth. #arOWS was organized by Mark Skwarek whose stated
goal was to use AR technology to get more people to come out and participate in the
OWS movement. #arOWS showed power or AR technology to deliver the activist's
message to Wall Street's front doorstep even though the FBI and police had spent
millions and millions of dollars trying to stop them. AR was able to overcome their
surveillance, barricades, horses and excessive police numbers.
One of the iconic works of #arOWS was the ProtestAR app. The app took the
protesters from Zucotti Park and placed them directly in front of the NYSE. The
app was created from pictures and audio taken of the Occupiers and their messages.
The Occupiers were cut out of the pictures using image editing software. The cut
outs were turned into virtual AR images and placed in front of the NYSE along
with recorded sound bytes made by the protesters. Organizers of #arOWS went to
the forbidden protest zone in front of the NYSE on almost a daily basis and would
show the public the augments on a tablet. ProtestAR allowed the occupiers to protest
in front of their specified target, the NYSE and be heard.
An interesting comparison between activists working in the physical and those
working with AR can be made with AR “Money Grab” by Todd Margolis, and
“Reign of Gold” by Tamiko Thiel on one hand, with the physical intervention “The
Day the NYSE went Yippie” by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin on the other. All
of the works were activist interventions that had money falling over the NYSE.
In 1967 Hoffman and Rubin staged an intervention inside the NYSE and threw
handfuls of real money from a balcony onto the traders on the stock market floor.
In 2011 Margolis and Thiel made AR money rain continuously over the NYSE.
Both events were well documented and were written about in the press allowing for
the AR experience of falling money to be compared to the physical one. To have
seen both the physical and AR works the viewer had to be present at the NYSE.
The physical intervention of Hoffman and Rubin was short lived because they were
detained almost immediately after starting. The work certainly provoked a reaction
from the day traders who witnessed the event. “Some of the brokers, clerks and
stock runners below laughed and waved; others jeered angrily and shook their fists.”
(Ledbetter
2007
).
Very few, if any of the general public witnessed the intervention because it
happened behind the closed doors of the NYSE. Their work was successful because
news press was there to capture and write about the event. In contrast Margolis and
Thiel's works were seen by many of the public (including day trades) who were
walking around the NYSE at random times. We do not know if the traders inside
the NYSE witnessed the falling money but many were aware of the work. The AR
money never stopped falling so the event is still ongoing and documented to this
day. When comparing the physical to AR, it's very hard to beat the emotion of being
under real falling money with AR. This difference is a major divider of the physical
