© Lucas Wozniak 2024
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Currently we are focused on iterating on one of the app's 7-9 scenes, focused on the canal's industrial and shipping history. We aim to develop a full-fledged version of this scene by the end of the year and extensibly apply the scene's underlying UX flow to the remainder of the evolving scenes in the new year.
Most recently we have been working on fleshing out the animations within this industrial scene, including more realistically embedding the Gaia figure within the canal landscape via water surface ripples, conveying her more flexible and amorphous form hinting at her ineffability via frequent body "disintegration" animations, and adding more dynamic bodily gestures for her that sync up with her voiceover narratives:
We had a user testing session in October with several local artists and designers, which validated our Gaia figure design trajectories and reminded us to pay careful attention to assets' scale and clarify interactivity indicators for more intuitive UX.
Here is some documentation from that day:
Here's a video walkthrough of the Industry / Shipping History scene iteration from October:
We recently got accepted into the inaugural Meaningful XR Conference (at Stanford in May) to showcase GowanusAR's novel design features in a poster exhibit.
It was phenomenal to be able to join a group of diverse XR innovators from around the world and share amongst each other about uniquely meaningful use cases.
Here are some photos from the experience:
Here's a video walkthrough of an iteration of our "Sponge Park" scene recorded within the Unity Editor:
After three rounds of user testing in 2023 and many iterations exploring our evolving vision, we have reached a crystallization of the app's form and content:
We're aiming to complete our updates to each of the sites and ship a user-ready version of the app in the App Store within the next month.
~~ New demo video(s) forthcoming!
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I've been collaborating with media artist Sarah Drury on the research, design, and development of a mobile AR app that tells interactive stories of past and speculative future land development around the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY.
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Sarah Drury, as a resident of a neighborhood bordering Gowanus, grew interested in the canal as a site of contested political and ecological issues. These include:
Inspired by these envisioned solutions, Sarah got the idea of literally visualizing them in an AR app that explores "alternative urban development and sustainability in the context of a densely built urban wetland." She invited me on board, and we started meeting to map out the design and technical requirements.
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Via an AR iOS app, we are designing a guided tour around the future site of Gowanus Green, planned as an affordable, below-market-rate housing development, to be built along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York.
It tells the history of the canal's development and visualize future development plans, including interactive "data stories" about social, ecological, and health impacts, such as added wastewater per building.
I'm developing the app in Unity with C#, AR Foundation, and third-party plugins such as the Mapbox/ArcGIS Maps SDK and support for Apple's Core Haptics API, with the following features:
Along the way, we're inviting contributions from local stakeholders, residents, artists, advocates, and landscape designers, such as audio narratives, 3D models, design projections, and information.
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Currently in development (through Spring 2025)
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Currently we are focused on iterating on one of the app's 7-9 scenes, focused on the canal's industrial and shipping history. We aim to develop a full-fledged version of this scene by the end of the year and extensibly apply the scene's underlying UX flow to the remainder of the evolving scenes in the new year.
Most recently we have been working on fleshing out the animations within this industrial scene, including more realistically embedding the Gaia figure within the canal landscape via water surface ripples, conveying her more flexible and amorphous form hinting at her ineffability via frequent body "disintegration" animations, and adding more dynamic bodily gestures for her that sync up with her voiceover narratives:
We had a user testing session in October with several local artists and designers, which validated our Gaia figure design trajectories and reminded us to pay careful attention to assets' scale and clarify interactivity indicators for more intuitive UX.
Here is some documentation from that day:
Here's a video walkthrough of the Industry / Shipping History scene iteration from October:
We recently got accepted into the inaugural Meaningful XR Conference (at Stanford in May) to showcase GowanusAR's novel design features in a poster exhibit.
It was phenomenal to be able to join a group of diverse XR innovators from around the world and share amongst each other about uniquely meaningful use cases.
Here are some photos from the experience:
Here's a video walkthrough of an iteration of our "Sponge Park" scene recorded within the Unity Editor:
After three rounds of user testing in 2023 and many iterations exploring our evolving vision, we have reached a crystallization of the app's form and content:
We're aiming to complete our updates to each of the sites and ship a user-ready version of the app in the App Store within the next month.
~~ New demo video(s) forthcoming!
{{sect2}}
I've been collaborating with media artist Sarah Drury on the research, design, and development of a mobile AR app that tells interactive stories of past and speculative future land development around the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY.
{{sect3}}
Sarah Drury, as a resident of a neighborhood bordering Gowanus, grew interested in the canal as a site of contested political and ecological issues. These include:
Inspired by these envisioned solutions, Sarah got the idea of literally visualizing them in an AR app that explores "alternative urban development and sustainability in the context of a densely built urban wetland." She invited me on board, and we started meeting to map out the design and technical requirements.
{{sect4}}
Via an AR iOS app, we are designing a guided tour around the future site of Gowanus Green, planned as an affordable, below-market-rate housing development, to be built along the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York.
It tells the history of the canal's development and visualize future development plans, including interactive "data stories" about social, ecological, and health impacts, such as added wastewater per building.
I'm developing the app in Unity with C#, AR Foundation, and third-party plugins such as the Mapbox/ArcGIS Maps SDK and support for Apple's Core Haptics API, with the following features:
Along the way, we're inviting contributions from local stakeholders, residents, artists, advocates, and landscape designers, such as audio narratives, 3D models, design projections, and information.
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Currently in development (through Spring 2025)
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