23 May – 4 June 2024 (1st part)
DOORS is an augmented reality software for mobile devices. It was conceived during my secondment in Nicosia at AHDR (May 2024) and after a series of urban explorations aimed at exploring conflicting narratives of public space. 1) The first step was to identify sites that are significant for the memory of the city of Nicosia, and in particular those sites that are the subject of conflicting memories and practices. 2) The second step was to collect photos and videos of the sites, as well as accounts from direct or indirect witnesses (e.g. from literature). 3) Then I designed a city trail based on some of the most significant narratives collected. 4) Finally I created an AR interface for mobile devices with the content collected during the urban explorations.
DOORS was implemented using technology that allows content to be uploaded and enjoyed on a smartphone without the need to download apps or other softwares. Just frame an image or an object to unlock audio, video, textual, etc. associated. DOORS makes it possible to create urban itineraries with stops that function as “milestones” to be reached in order to discover traces of contested and conflicting memories. Finally, DOORS allows each user to insert their own augmented content linked to specific milestones. In this way, it is possible to create participatory and interactive urban itineraries in dialogue with the oral and multimedia archives of a city.
The first prototype focused on Nicosia and Modena and can be refined and adapted to the future needs of each partner. For example, one of the possible future experiments could be to work with children in a playful-creative form of urban exploration and collection of information and narratives about the city’s spaces to be included in a mobile AR system.