Gowanus Augmented Reality Walking Tour

GowanusAR is a location-based augmented reality app focusing on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn New York, a post-industrial Superfund site now under high rise development.    

Something about the Gowanus invites the projection of images, abject or visionary:

—the visions of urbanist designers past dreaming up recombinative solutions for rebuilding the polluted and abandoned lots that surrounded the canal until recently
—the vision of layers of history paved over—the Salt Marsh and its human and non-human inhabitants, immigrant histories, the hydrology itself in the form of persistent underground springs as documented by a 'forensic geographer'*
—the visions of environmentalists, artists, residents and activists continuing their work toward the remediation of the polluted water and soil, in negotiation with the development process
—the visions of development solidifying into the bright new face of Gowanus, amid ongoing pollution

 GowanusAR overlays futurist, historical and dystopian visions as layers of history, contemporary stories, hybrid ecologies, and streams of information on the changing location in an immersive, accessible way, easily available through the smart phone.

THE GOWANUS AUGMENTED REALITY TOUR APP TEAM
Sarah Drury, Concept, Design and Project Director
Lucas Wozniak, XR Designer and Programmer
Guy Barash, Composer and Sound Design
Alma Hutter, Research and Administration
The Gowanus Augmented Reality Walking Tour has been funded in part by the Puffin Foundation, the Brooklyn Arts Fund and Temple University.

  • Mapmaker Eymund Diegel terms his work on Underground Waterways as "

For project updates:
https://www.instagram.com/gowanusar

Project Trailer showing a prototype of the work in progress on the project, from 2023.

3D Tide Mill Animation
Concept/Design by Sarah Drury
3D Animation by Phillip Stearns
AR Programming by Lucas Wozniak

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