Carrie Furnace - Historic Landmark - PGH
- augmented reality
- historic center alignment
- discussions with funding possibilities
- discussions/planning sponsors
How do you commemorate the massive number of working people who made the wheels of the steel industry turn? An industry that positioned this entire nation as a global power - How do you memorialize that?
Refit Or Die’s first concept was of molten metal ghosts from the past making themselves visible to the human eye once again. This time, however, the metal rises to the sky in gigantic drops of glowing orange.
The original large-scale installation was conceived of using helium balloons built similarly to weather balloons. Each balloon is fitted with the ability to maintain full inflation through the duration of the installation. The balloons will be Illuminated with LED lights while orange fabric glows like the molten metal did long ago in this very building, and in many such structures all over Pittsburgh.
These giant drops of liquid metal rise outside to the skies where most of the men who worked in the structure and structures like this all over Pittsburgh have also risen. Their memories are preserved in a kind of contemporary artistic sculptural monument that can be seen from the surrounding areas.
Though the project began as a physical build, it has evolved into an Augmented Reality experience due to the engineering complications along with the incredible financial weight of the physical build. Switching to augmented reality is a less expensive option, allowing the community to use that money in more impactful ways. With the switch to augmented reality, the project is expanding. There is so much more we can now do with this concept.
Converting The Idea to Augmented Reality
Refit Or Die originally focused mainly on the production of physical objects. As I grew bored working within a small scale, the expansion to grandiose scales made augmented reality grab my attention. Of course, when this project went AR, I needed the scale of the project to dramatically increase so that any naysayer, preferring physical to digital, would have to admit that much of the project wouldn’t even be possible. Rule number one: This project now had to be bigger than any physical build could be!
This scribble was the first augmented reality map/plan.
Mapping Out The Entire Site
The remaining physical structures and visiting area are what we see in the GREEN map. The RED map shows the original complete facility when it was at its peak and in full operation.
Dividing The Augmented Reality Experience Into Three Parts
Augmented Reality is the main focus and mission of Refit Or Die BUT it will never really replace the physical building of monuments or real experiences. The truth is that augmented reality has to work harder and do a lot more than, like, in this project, the simple orange weather balloons could do alone. For this project we expanded the AR into three focused parts of a whole experience.
reimagine the molten drops (balloons) as well as the massive ceilings in the rental spaces, by converting all these major assets into animated molten metal.
Create shadow figures to represent the multitude of steelworkers who made this facility run, using molten metal animation in the places where actual metal did flow all over the site.
Create lines of molten metal animation to create an outline of the whole facility as it was when the place was at its peak and in full operation.
The following sections are loose sketches of what this might look like.
