Augmented Reality Mural
UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA | GENEVA, SWITZERLAND | 2016
The Universite de Geneve was founded in 1556 and today lies in the geographical center of the European continent's brain study efforts. This Heavy Projects mural at the University's new medical school building depicts the neuron’s central importance in human cognition and as the deeper engine of medical research.
The video tells the story of the creative process, including the importance of real-world physicality even in the creation of digital art. An electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information, neurons are the core components of the brain, spinal cord, the central nervous system, but for Heavy purposes, neurons are a visual metaphor for the connectivity required between modern research pursuits (the left half of the augmented lab) and the older technological antecedents that are their forebears (the right half of the augmented lab). While the physical mural depicts an empty laboratory with a static neuron, in augmented reality the lab fills with books and technological research equipment, both old and new, brought forth by a now animated and electronically living neuron. The laboratory is both a physical room and a metaphorical brain with both the right and left halves activated by the thinking neuron, surrounded by the tools of vigorous research. Such are the students' brains at the UniGe building.
This Project was brought to us by our friends at Happy City Labs in Switzerland... and was for the opening of the new medical school building (CMU 5-6) at UniGe. Please read more about this installation and about our project partner Happy City Labs here.