Klasien is an expert in interaction and user experience design. She designs the way people interact with, and use their digital environment by creating usable interfaces and interactions in (public) spaces. Her work is focussed on mobile technologies such as augmented reality and locative media.
AugmentNL (a collaboration of Sander Veenhof, Luciano Pinna and me) worked on a project for the Liberation festival on the 5th of May on ‘De Dam’.
The project was based on a story of the resistance group ‘De Vonk’. In 1942, when the Jews were forced to wear the Jewish star badges, De Vonk printed pamphlets with this star and the text “Jew and non Jew, we are one in this battle”. They threw them of the roof of the Bijenkorf, just in front of the buildings of the SS and other German offices.
We created a virtual act of resistance by throwing virtual pamphlets from the building of the Bijenkorf using mobile Augmented Reality. My part of the project was to design the experience and interactions, design of the pamphlet and sound design.
On the 5th of May the project was opened during the opening speech of the Liberation festival and was called an important new monument on Dam square.
The project became really interesting. It was another confirmation on how powerful a story can become when you tell this on the location where the story is about. But also a virtual layer on top of the real world makes an interesting connection between history, physical and virtual world. I discovered a new enthusiastic audience not used to mobile AR, mostly elderly people, who acted amazed by experiencing the virtual act of resistance themselves.
Sander and I created a presentation of our experience with the fake and real Glass, how we can experience AR through an AR glass in the future and how we are all becoming cyborgs. I’ll soon add a link to SlideShare!
Zo niet, dan toch is a project of Sander Veenhof and me. It contains a mobile hackathon (June 29th) and a virtual festival (September 7th).
Zo niet, dan toch festival is an one day festival in Amsterdam Noord. The festival will show new ways of experiencing existing art forms in the virtual space. The festival will take place in virtual space, a space without limitations and with new oppurtunities.
Zo niet, dan toch shows you this virtual space by presenting it as a new (art)platform in Amsterdam. The festival stimulates the exchange of knowledge between designers, artists and developers by getting them together to work on new projects in a hackathon. The virtual content of the festival will be accessible only by your phone.
Are you an:
artist? developer? musician? philosopher? architect? historian? designer? Apply now for the hackathon! Your project can become part of the festival. www.zonietdanto.ch
After our project with the 3D printed glass we ran into a lot of people with fake AR glasses in Amsterdam but also online the community of fake and new designed glasses were growing based on the 3D print Sander and I did. We were asked to hand out some fake glasses to create a buzz at the conference. It worked really well. The first day before we handed them out, we were treated like movie stars. Everyone wanted to interview us and take pictures because of our ‘cool looks’. We created a special ‘Zo niet, dan toch’ 3D printed glass.
DJ Glass
At TNW conference we were the lucky ones to run into Scoble first thing and of course, he noticed us immediately with the fake (and new designed!) glasses. I designed a neon pink with glow in the dark version for this moment. Scoble was so kind to have us try the real Google Glass.
The Google Glass was an interesting experience. A new way we are not used to, to receive and create data. You need to look a bit up to see through the glass. This sounds annoying but it is not. It is actually nice because you can ignore it easy. Also if you want to make secret pictures I think you are better of using your mobile phone then Glass. The looks of Glass are really bold and big. I also had a bit of problem using the glass on my right eye, as a left handed person. There were only a few apps available like weather, traffic and mail. And of course a camera to view and take pictures and videos.
At the hackathon of ‘Zo niet, dan toch’ on June 29th we will have a Google Glass present so we hope to hack some AR on Glass.
At the Transvormersfestival in Het Volkskrantgebouw (‘broedplaats’ in Amsterdam Oost) I presented the project PeepWall together with James Bryan Graves. James and I share an office in het Volkskrantgebouw and were asked to participate in the festival.
PeepWall is a historical snapshot of the Volkskrantgebouw before it’s transformation into a hotel. James and I were always wondering what is happening inside all these studio’s and offices in Volkskrantgebouw. So many different disciplines in the building, but it’s not visible at all. We went on a guerrilla tour through the building to make quick snapshots of the different studios from the inside.
I created a poster of the Volkskrantgebouw and James and I used fiducials as recognizable images on the poster and in the app. Visitors were able to have a look themselves inside the building by ‘peeping’ in the windows of the Volkskrantgebouw poster with their smartphone. We used augmented reality for the pictures to get visible inside the windows of the Volkskrantgebouw.
Sander Veenhof and I were involved in a presentation about Augmented Reality, together with DUS architects. DUS showed some samples of the first tests of their 3D printed house together with Rooie Joris (€perminutedesign). We asked him to 3D print us a Google Glass. We tried some different colors and decided to make an almost realistic version with a twist.
I was in a meeting with Sander in a coffee place, we decided to wear the glasses that day to see how people will react to this, will they get bothered because they feel we are photographing or filming them? An American guy asked if he was allowed to take a picture of us. We discovered he is an editor for the big tech blog the Verge and we got featured on their blog. Read the article here. We also discovered further in the day that Amsterdammers are not really bothered by this new cyborg look :)
Sander contintued on the subject by creating a Google Glass Screensaver experience and a DIY Glass experiment.
The art academy in Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning academy, asked me to do a guest lecture about Augmented Reality and interactive print. Afterwards I gave the students feedback on their assignments on interactive print.
BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer) asked me to participate with the HearUsHere project on their event in Utrecht.
Together with the sound artist Dinggoo, who performed during the opening of the HearUsHere project, I created a performance during BYOB. Dinggoo created soundscapes of the audio files I used in the HearUsHere augmented audio app. We created a patch together in Max MXP software. The patch triggers pictures of the neighborhood where the sounds are about and changes these in colour and brightness as the music is changing.
by Klasien van de Zandschulp & James Bryan Graves, in collaboration with Kijkruimte
HearUsHere is an augmented audio app through the Van der Pekbuurt with stories by artists and neighbors from the KijkRuimte archives. The stories are about how a social housing district needs to make way for renewal and about the impact of the restructuring process on daily life in the neighborhood.
The creators of this app want you to experience the Van der Pekbuurt in an augmented way. While walking you get entangled with physical reality as you hear the people you see while walking around, and you see the changes of the neighborhood around you. When you walk towards a specific sound, the volume will increase as you get closer. By walking towards and away from the sounds you are composing a unique audio tour and constructing your own perception of the neighborhood in transition.
Download the app in the AppStore and start walking around in the neighborhood. After you launch the app you can put your phone back in your pocket, and as you walk the neighborhood you will hear stories that fit your location.
On the 5th of May the project was opened during the opening speech of the Liberation festival and was called an important new monument on Dam square.
