Developing a Narrative

As the digital realm of the Mirrorworld unfolds, how can emerging technologies of Extended Reality (XR) serve as a medium to induce social awareness? How can XR create a positive impact on the physical world? How can we develop scenarios, experiences, products, games, stories, or data-driven narratives to provoke meaningful outcomes?

Early brainstorming and developments of our project led us to discover the relevant and urgent issues that are likely to worsen by the year 2030.

Timeline

The initial scope was fairly broad — creating an interactive VR experience on the increasing nature of climate change. Then, we narrowed the concept further by considering the major factors contributing to the climate crisis. This path led us to the urgent climate crisis caused by unhealthy consumer behaviors. We then decided to use AR technologies to reimagine the NYC cityscape — a dystopian accumulation of inescapable waste which surrounds us (some might agree NYC isn’t too far off from this).

Instead of relying on our current system — disposing of trash to a distant location and then forgetting about it — we want the consumers to confront their waste. As China has refused to accept our recycled goods, we want to provoke consumers to think about the people who are affected by the trash economy. We are speculating a future where we face the repercussions of the trash we’ve created.

As we were refining our idea, we attended a panel with Ana Isabel Baptista, the chair of the Environmental Policy and Sustainable Management Program at The New School. In the discussion, we discovered that the city of New York has implemented a Zero Waste program to tackle the trash and recycle epidemic at large. Which meant that the city has established efforts for the physical trash that it was generating. Yet, there was no clear solution for electronic waste.

As a result, we decided to narrow the scope of our design to the overproduction and consumption of electronics. As well as the toxic and (often) illegal “recycle” processes of various electronic companies. Instead of properly recycling electronics, producers often opted to ship E-waste to cities throughout the global south and Africa such as Accra, Ghana, which is later burnt for profit. The unsustainable processes of a digital utopian of the west is wrecking dystopian havoc on the remainder of the world. With over 55,115,565 tons of e-waste created a year, enough e-waste to stack 4,500 Eiffel Towers on top of each other.

Final Idea

Through photogrammetry, augmented reality, and data sonification, we have created an AR activism experience. The experience gets activated through a QR code when you scan the poster — the link to download the AR app appears, and using that, you can visualize electronic waste around you.Through photogrammetry, augmented reality, and data sonification, we have created an AR activism experience. The experience gets activated through a QR code when you scan the poster — the link to download the AR app appears, and using that, you can visualize electronic waste around you.

This group project is a guide for activism about electronic waste. It uses augmented reality and photogrammetry to raise awareness. The project members include Jazsalyn, Tiffany Topor, Sonia Colunga, Yashwanth Iragattapu, and Akshansh Chaudhary.