Layers of Place: MIT Symposium

April 7: Augmented Reality as Art, Voice and Resistance

In conjunction with the MIT Open Documentary Lab’s AR and Public Space Artist Collective’s exhibition, Layers of Place: MIT, this interdisciplinary panel explores how artists and communities are using augmented reality to reveal the layers of histories, stories, and perspectives of place. How can AR make the invisible visible?

From the perspective of a curator, technologist, community leader, artist, and scholar, we will hear how artists and communities co-create with AR as an artistic medium and a tool of resistance to reclaim narratives of place. How can AR be used to find commonalities between communities, to bridge divides, and to see multiple perspectives? How can site-specific work move beyond? What are the limitations of an invisible medium like AR — and how might its discreet nature also open new pathways for resistance and storytelling?

Panelists:

• Leonie Bradbury, Distinguished Curator-in-Residence, Emerson College, moderator
• Gediminas Urbonas, Associate Professor, Art, Culture, and Technology, MIT
• Lori Landay, Artist, Layers of Place: MIT - Moving Memory
• Meghna Singh, Artist, Layers of Place: MIT - The Fovnders Pillars
• Michael Dawson, Co-founder and CEO, Innovators for Purpose
• Nicolas Robbe, CEO, Hoverlay

April 8: Layers of Place: A dialogue with the MIT Open Documentary Lab AR and Public Space Artist Collective

The MIT Open Documentary Lab's AR and Public Space Artist Collective presents Layers of Place, a multiyear exploration of how digital augmentation reshapes our understanding of space, place, and shared histories.

Through Hoverlay, a location-based mobile AR app, MIT's landscape becomes an evolving canvas for urban annotation, bridging personal, communal, and historical experiences and revealing hidden stories and new perspectives. Hear from the artists who created the exhibit about their intent, process, and discoveries. What did they learn about digital augmentation as a tool for collective dialogue, imagination, and resistance? How do the pluralities of perspectives and layered realities complicate our relationship to place and provoke a new understanding of place and each other?

Panelists:

• Nadav Assor, Humble Monuments
• Rashin Fahandej, Humble Monuments
• Joanna Wright, Humble Monuments
• Yucef Merhi, Open Access Memorial
• Tamara Shogaolu, Oryza: Healing Ground
• Mathieu Pradat, Paper Boat
• Sahar Sajadieh, Paper Boat
• Lori Landay, Moving Memory
• Meghna Singh, The Fovnders Pillars
• Simon Wood, The Fovnders Pillars
• Lesiba Mabitsela, The Fovnders Pillars
• Danny Goldfield, 1 to Infinity: MIT
• Halsey Burgund, Artist, Technologist
• Sarah Wolozin, Moderator

Symposium Schedule:

🕔 5:00–6:00 PM | Guided Tour of Layers of Place: MIT AR Exhibition (with artists)

🥗 6:00–6:30 PM | Reception with light refreshments.

🎙️ 6:30–8:00 PM | Evening Panels

Location: MIT E15-001 | ACT Cube/Blackbox Theatre

Explore all 7 AR installations across MIT’s campus through guided daily tours. Each tour lasts an hour.

👉 Learn more and sign up here: https://opendoclab.mit.edu/presents/layers-place-mit-augmented-reality-exhibition/

Info: Experience the AR exhibit with the artists and organizers of Layers of Place: MIT.

Info: Light refreshments will be provided during the reception.

Info: April 7: Augmented Reality as Art, Voice and Resistance. | April 8: Layers of Place: A dialogue with the MIT Open Documentary Lab AR and Public Space Artist Collective

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Wiesner Building, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, United States