Augmented Reality Intervention for Long Time, No See?

I was recently invited by friend and long-time collaborator Linda Carroli, to consider a project she has been working on (Long Time No See? LTNS) through a similar process to what I have explored in a number of augmented reality walks.

To keep up date with this collaboration you can read these posts:

• Framing the Capital: Waypoints and Walkworks 18 October, by Tracey Benson
• Reports: Fieldworking Long Time No See? 16 October, by Linda Carroli
• Framing the Capital – Finding Collaborators 10 October 2014, By Tracey Benson
• Artist Intervention: Tracey Benson 9 October 2014, by Linda Carroli

Background: Linking projects and practices: intervening and expanding works

Long Time No See? (LTNS), is a project combining the development of an iOS app, a large-scale installation and a series of workshops and presentations. The project is based on a Fieldbook (PDF), largely developed by Linda to engage walkers in their local community. A number of artists including Keith Armstrong as Creative Director, Gavin Sade, Roger Dean, Rob Henderson and others have worked collaboratively on the project so far and it has a significant physical presence at the Queensland University of Technology, The Cube space.

Linda was interested to see how I would interpret the Fieldbook to create a walk, with the use of my approach with AR, storytelling and walking.

Over the years we have maintained a mutual interest in place, especially in the layers that define a place – layers of stories, history and memory.

Interestingly, we both grew up literally across the road from each other in Aspley, a place that has been significantly influential for my creative work.  For example, an early performance Scalpland, has been a continuing source of reference, especially when considering identity, place and the environment. To elaborate, I recently referenced Scalpland and how it triggered ways of thinking about place, at a presentation about my augmented reality walks at ADA Mesh Cities. Scalpland speaks about the suburban experience, the changing landscape and ideas of environmental degradation through suburban development. It has also heavily explored ideas around the gaze and the female body as a site of colonisation.

Linda’s practice as a writer, thinker and urban practitioner has a different bent to mine as an artist, but there are many commonalities. Over the years these common threads have resulted in an ongoing dialogue between us, which is visible in a series of works where Linda has written about my work, or where I have participated in exhibitions curated by Linda.

There is a sense of poetics in the Fieldbook that I respond to, it is designed to feed creative thinking and also to find the connections between things – sense making as well as place making. For example, the waypoints are not about a particular place, instead they are a framework for building ideas and thoughts about ‘where we are’. Ideas have the potential to be as complex or as simple as the participant wants, which is a lovely concept capturing the micro and macro experiences. Moreover, these waypoints offer the possibility of creating intention – if we take the time to see things, then perhaps it will be a catalyst to act. The waypoints are described:

The path ahead:

• Leaving behind
• Planting ideas
• Getting closer
• Taking care
• Giving more
• Breaking silence
• Talking point
• Enduring legacy
• Welcoming embrace

Here is an image of the waypoints from the Fieldbook:

You can download the Fieldbook for yourself at http://explore.long-time-no-see.org/browser. You can also read about the project at the LTNS blog at http://community.long-time-no-see.org/ and see Linda’s test walk at her Placing blog. Also, Linda has written an article for eARTh eMag explaining the project at http://issuu.com/earth-emag/docs/earth5_final, see page 43.

There are certainly some lovely ideas here to consider and I am very excited to be working with Linda on a project that links our practices and thinking about place, sustainability and creativity. Over the coming weeks I will be developing a walk in response to these waypoints. Stay tuned for more!