arOCCUPY May Day

In Nov 2011, as part of the Occupy New York protests, a group of augmented reality artists lead by Mark Skwarek created an installation of geo-located and image-recognition triggered virtual art works at the site of the New York Stock Exchange. Because they lacked any actual presence in the physical world and could be viewed only on smart phones and tablets, these works easily “slipped past” police barricades and remained on at the NYSE and nearby Zuccotti Park even after the police had expelled the protestors.

Now, almost six months later, this AR art protest is returning for an international exhibition / virtual occupation to mark the international worker’s day, May Day. In addition to being “’erected” at the original Wall Street site, installations of works by 17 artists (and counting!) will be staged at locations throughout the US, in Mexico, Dominica, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Korea and Australia.

Click here for a complete map of locations.

All of these installations will go live on May 1st, 2012 in what will be the first ever global augmented reality art event.

And you’re welcome to get involved and stage your own showing of these works in your own community – or even contribute a work of your own! (Even if you’re new to AR art, but have an idea you’d like to try out in it, please contact us as well; we may be able to help.)

For more details, please contact either the main organizer, Mark Skwarek (USA), on mark.skwarek1@gmail.com or Warren Armstrong (Australia), on filmcement@gmail.com

HERE IN AUSTRALIA

The main staging of arOCCUPY May Day in Australia will be in Sydney, with works installed outside the Reserve Bank headquarters on the corner of Martin Place & Macquarie Street, and outside the Australian Stock Exchange building in Phillip Street.

Starting from 5:30pm on May 1st, there will be a special twilight tour of the works presented by Australian organiser, Warren Armstrong. The tour will start at the Martin Place site outside the Reserve Bank. And make sure you bring a device to see the works with. What sort of device? Well…

HOW TO SEE THE WORKS

Depending on the nature of a work, it will be viewable either using Junaio or the Layar Augmented Reality Browser. These are both mobile phone / tablet apps that will run on iPhone 3GS/4/4S, iPad 2/3 & newer Android smartphones – and they can be downloaded for free from the App Store and Google Play Store.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

About the artists, the works featured and what is happening elsewhere in the world, visit the international arOCCUPY May Day website:

http://aroccupymayday.blogspot.com