A Sense of Place: Breslau-Wroclaw?
Expressing heritage virtually as synthesis of place.
Concept Short
The work “A Sense of Place” is an immersive artwork
representing heritage as synthesis of place. It is a mediation between the forgone “German City
Breslau” and the present Polish City of Wroclaw expressed in a virtually shared
relationship
Concept Long
Inspired by the past
and present cultural identities of Wroclaw, the project “A Sense of Place” is an
immersive and interactive artwork. In the project, the representation of
heritage as syntheses takes place as an expression and as a mediation of the
concept of a virtually shared relationship between the forgone “German City
Breslau” and the present Polish City of Wroclaw in an attempt to synthesize the
dimensions of past and present into a single sense of place. Having to deal with diverse points in time and
the interplay between historical and contemporary place
with its collective and individual identities can only be overcome and manifest as an artwork
through the aid of technology, which allows for the representation of past time
by projecting into it onto the virtual space of the present. The installation
therefore makes use of virtual three-dimensional objects placed in real space
through exploring the possibilities of geo-tagged images, which are made
visible to all through the use of an Augmented Reality applications now in
common use with the mobile communications technologies of today.
Root Inspiration
Inspired by the past
and present cultural identities of Wroclaw, the project “A Sense of Place” is
an immersive and interactive artwork that synthesizes a heritage that is
divergent in cultural roots while addressing the social dysfunction that is part of an infliction
caused by the mechanisms set in motion by war.
In the project, the representation of
heritage as syntheses takes place as an expression and as a mediation of
the concept of a virtually shared relationship between the forgone “German City Breslau” and the present
Polish City of Wroclaw in an attempt to synthesize the dimensions of
past and present into a single sense of place. Having to deal with diverse points in time and
the interplay between historical and contemporary place
with its collective and individual identities can only be overcome and manifest as an artwork
through the aid of technology, which allows for the representation of past time
by projecting into it onto the virtual space of the present. The installation
therefore makes use on virtual three-dimensional objects placed in real space
through exploring geo-tagged images, which are made visible to all through the
use of augmented reality applications now in common use with the mobile
communications technologies.of today.
Realization
The first level of the
installation is created with virtual falling feathers as remembrance
to the city of Breslau, which in 1944 reached a hiatus of human suffering. A
common sight at that time was of feathers from
mattresses, pillows and bedclothes being carried out over the devastated city by
wind. The image was so poignant that it became a symbol for the displacement
and uprooting of a people and the deformation of the social-cultural continuum.
In the work A Sense of Place the project takes on an artistic form and
plays a symbolic role as “witness from the past”, in which each virtual feather
is personified with the image of an important person from the history of
Breslau-Wroclaw. This carries with it an associated sense of place formed by
centuries of human creativity and progress. By stopping any feather from
falling, a lifetime of information opens in connection to the image on the
feather. At the same time, visitors are
able to observe the contemporary landscape of Wroclaw through the mesh of
feathers falling from the sky, creating a past present mix of the virtual and
the real
Access
Access to the installation
is granted by simply using their mobile devices (phone, tablet ect.) and free
of charge for all those who are interested in immersing themselves in a 3D
structure in which they can explore by physical movement. The installation is
in open space and connects the real with the virtual and offers the experience allows
for the development of a new-shared cultural perspectives on Wroclaw going
beyond a nationally focused memory.