Monday, January 30, 2012

APPLE SHUTS DOWN HOPPALA TO STOP AUGMENTED REALITY PROTEST?????!!!


APPLE SHUTS DOWN HOPPALA TO STOP AUGMENTED REALITY PROTEST?????!!!

After being online for 8 hours the Apple protest and all of Hoppala were shut down by outside pressure form Apple?????!!!!!

It looks like this was to stop Mark Skwarek from Augmented Reality Activist's Apple protest started at Eyebeam's Activist Tech Demo Day. The protest targeted the Apple Store on 8th Ave in NYC by placing the Foxconn suicide jumper in Apple's glass atrium.

Hoppala the augmented reality server was operational at 11:00 p.m. last night, around the time when the "Foxconn worker in the Apple Store" first launched. At 7:03a.m. Hoppala was off line.







The New York Times is used to date the event from a screen capture.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Eyebeam // Tech Demo Day

For Eyebeam's Activist Tech Demo Day Mark Skwarek created activist works in a 24 hour time period which created a powerful message and raised awareness. Friday night Apple was chosen!

Apple products and the 8th Ave Apple Store would be the targets of the activism.


Link to This American Life episode

"Foxconn worker in Apple Store"
THIS IS LIVE - NOW
Go to the NYC 8th Ave Apple Store.
Go to the 3rd floor.
Load the Layar app, search for "AR Intervention".
Look into the atrium.

"Meet the maker" will be live soon!












Azadi SquARed: Tehran


Azadi SquARed is an augmented memorial to Neda Agha-Soltan, who was gunned down in the streets of Tehran during the 2009 Iranian election protests.


Built for smart phone mobile devices, this project allows visitors to Azadi Square to see the augmented reality memorial flag flapping in the wind above the Azadi Square monument. The public can simply download and launch the project and aim their device’s cameras at the monument. The application uses geolocation software to superimpose the memorial at the precise GPS coordinates atop the monument. Neda's death was captured on video by bystanders and broadcast to millions over the Internet. Her image remains a symbol of resistance.

Monumento a las Mujeres Desaparecidas

A augmented reality monument to the missing women of Ciudad Juárez and the opium brides of Afghanistan

By John Craig Freeman and Christina Marin



Monumento a las Mujeres Desaparecidas will premier at ManifestAR @ LA Re.Play, an Exhibition of Mobile Art in conjunction with Mobile Art: The Aesthetics of Mobile Network Culture in Placemaking during the College Arts Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, February 22-29, 2012.

Since 1993, hundreds of young women have been murdered and their bodies abandoned in vacant lots around Ciudad Juárez just over the border from El Paso. Many showed signs of sexual violence, torment, torture or in some cases disfigurement. Most of these women were migrant workers who traveled to Juárez from other parts of Mexico seeking employment at the nearby multinational maquiladoras. As Max Blumenthal wrote in his article for Solaon Day of the dead, dated December 4, 2002, "Free-trade advocates once promised that NAFTA would transform Juarez into the City of the Future — and they have been proven right in a way they never could have imagined." To this day, most of these murders remain unsolved and the perpetrators unpunished.

Unfortunately, there are no statistics about how many girls have been traded for debt incurred from opium eradication policies in Afghanistan, but journalists and NGOs like the International Organization for Migration have documented instances of such transactions taking place across the country. Traditionally, the Afghan society is patriarchal in its nature, and women often are considered the property of men. The practice of using women and girls for dispute settlements has been a part of the Afghan society for centuries. Drug smugglers loan poor Afghan farmers money to plant opium. When the government destroys the crop as part of its opium eradication program, the farmers are still liable for the debt and are often forced to trade their daughters or face the threat of having the entire family murdered. The girls are then sold off as Opium Brides.

Los Angeles' historic Olvera Street is arguably the oldest theme park in existence. With its foundations in Old Town Los Angeles, El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles, Olvera Street was converted to a festive Mexican marketplace in the 1930's, a full two decades before the founding of Disneyland. For over eighty years, Olvera Street has provided a safer alternative border experience for tourists. It is perfectly plausible that Walt Disney's ideas of transporting people to imaginary places for amusement were formed in part during his visits to Olvera Street and nearby Chinatown. "Monumento a las Mujeres Desaparecidas" turns this border-themed virtual reality on its head by introducing very real contemporary border issues through augmented reality technology.

Built for smart phone mobile devices, "Monumento a las Mujeres Desaparecidas" creates a lasting monument to victims of feminicidios, female homicides, in Ciudad Juárez and the opium brides of Afghanistan. The public can simply download and launch a mobile application and aim their devices' cameras at the top of Olvera Street and the surrounding plaza or La Placita. The application uses geolocation software to superimpose individual augments at precise GPS coordinates, enabling the public to see the objects integrated into the physical location as if they existed in the real world.

Border Memorial Field Test and Documentation

On Tuesday, January 16th, after three days of driving from New England, John Craig Freeman arrived in Benson Arizona, which put him on the shore of the Border Memorial: Frontera de los Muertos database. He spent the next two days driving throughout southern Arizona documenting as many of the individual data points as possible. The work was sobering and intense, but the projects performed perfectly.



On the road to Ajo along Arizona Highway 86.

Tank Man and Goddess of Democracy at SOMArts

Both Tank Man and Goddess of Democracy have been spotted at SOMArts in San Francisco. This may have something to do with the upcoming "I Am Crime" exhibition.


Friday, January 20, 2012

BLOG

This blog will showcase current and ongoing augmented reality works by activists.



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Mark Skwarek from Augmented Reality Activists will present current activist work
as well as give a hands on augmented reality workshop for activists! FREE!!!

SATURDAY 3-6 January 28 - THIS WEEK!


WHAT TO BRING //// Check List ////

1. A fully charged smart phone or pad [iPad2, iPhone 3gs or newer,most android phones work].

2. A fully charged laptop that can connect to the internet.

3. A fully charged digital camera that can connect to the laptop.

4. The logo of something you would like to protest against, ie a Walmart logo or real world photo [try for as little distortion as possible].














6. Know the real world location you wish to occupy/ protest/ or raise awareness about, ie the Walmart Main Headquarters located at 36.366114,-94.219383 in Bentonville AR, 72716 Benton County.
5. Create the accounts listed above People wishing to participate in the Augmented Reality Activists workshop should create accounts with Layar, Junaio, and Hoppala before hand if possible.
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7. Come with big ideas!!!

SATURDAY 3-6 January 28 - THIS WEEK!

LOCATION-
EYEBEAM
540 W. 21st Street, (between 10th and 11th Avenues) New York, NY 10011 Tel. 212.937.6580 Fax: 212.937.6582


Augmented Reality Activists is a community center for augmented reality activism and related work. This site is meant to act as a resource center for activists community minded individuals working with augmented reality and related media. The site forum will foster an atmosphere of openness and sharing. The sites "activist archive" documents the progression of augmented reality related activism. The sites knowledge base serves as a learning center which shares different techniques for augmented reality activism.







If you wish to have your work added to the library of activist works please contact board member Mark Skwarek at
mark.skwarek1@gmail.com
This site will also act as a hub of knowledge for activists to learn and share different techniques for Augmented Reality Activism.