Invisibles

intro . video . source code and application . bio and contact . português

Every human being, in his passage through the earth, leaves his mark. Some build palaces, buildings; some write books read by thousands of readers; some leave a lineage, inheritances, or plant trees that will keep on growing for many years after. Other, though, stand out for the invisibility. These are the ones that one can only notice for a light displacement of the air around, or by a shade, that when we turn to look at, has no owner. This project proposes a visit to these invisible people.
Invisibles reflects about the history and usages of Belo Horizonte municipal park, using its most anonymous visitors as the main focus. The project takes the concepts of localization and augmented reality to offer an exploratory tour of the park, an expedition looking for fictional or real characters closely related to that space.
Visitors receive orientation from the monitors and mobile phones specially prepared with an application that filters the live video feed from the phone camera, overlapping pictures previously taken of park users., taken by the participants of festival workshops. A video tracking algorithm makes the images float on fixed positions over the park background, giving the illusion of a virtual presence. As the visitors walk through the park, a geotagging feature identifies their position and inserts different characters. By centering the character on the screen, users can read his or her name and history.
Invisibles was commissioned by the Arte.mov festival in November 2007.
The application was developed by the own artist in Mobile Python. The source code and a location independent version is available here.