Manifest.AR / Lily & Honglei

Members of the artist collective Manifest.AR bring their augmented reality projects – fresh from the Venice Biennale 2011 – to the Dumbo waterfront. Download the Layar APP, search Dumbo and view the various points of interest.

The augmentation is inspired by the crystal coffin displayed in Mausoleum of Mao Zedong on Tiananmen Square since 1977, a year after Mao’s death. In the twenty first century, while China has been transforming itself into a modern society in many ways and gaining more influences economically and politically around the globe, Mao’s crystal coffin, the immortal-looking shell, remains exist as a symbol of authoritarian ruling system. During spring 2011, a crackdown on dissent – including detaining many intellectuals and members of religious group – followed by distinct signs of revival of Maoist policies, has left people baffled about the future direction of China. We therefore use Crystal Coffin of Mao as main body of the virtual China Pavilion, which is topped with a tower and roof with ancient Chinese looking, as regulated by Ministry of Construction of China: architectural ‘designs must reflect traditional Chinese building styles.

All Virtual Pavilions Projects:
John Cleater, ‘Sky Pavilions’
Tamiko Thiel, ‘Shades of Absence: Public Voids’
Mark Skwarek & Alan Sondheim, ‘The Island’
John Craig Freeman, ‘Water wARs’
Lily & Honglei, ‘The Crystal Coffin’
Will Pappenheimer, ‘Revolving Bridges’
Sander Veenhof, ‘Screensaver Anno 2011′

Artist Statement / Bio

Manifest.AR is an international artists collective working with emergent forms of augmented reality as interventionist public art. The group sees this medium as a way of transforming public space and institutions by installing virtual objects and artworks which respond to and overlay the configuration of located physical meaning. Utilizing this technology as artwork is an entirely new proposition and explores all that we know and experience as the mixture of the real and the hyper-real. Physically, nothing changes, the audience can simply download and launch an Augmented Reality Browser app on their iPhone or Android and aim the devices’ camera to view the world around them. The application uses geolocation software to superimpose computer generated three-dimensional art objects, enabling the public to see the work integrated into the physical location as if it existed in the real world.