Augmented Reality in alternative documentarisms of crisis and catastrophes
In times of digital image overload and the resulting polarization or, conversely, desensitization to media content, ATLAS OF THE ESSENCE offers an alternative documentary approach that visually renegotiates complex events such as natural disasters, conflicts, and social issues. The essence of such an event is captured through a method of superimposition, gathering several hundred to well over a thousand images. These images, researched online via search engines and social networks, come from professional photojournalists but, crucially, also from those directly affected and eyewitnesses. This multi-perspective approach, which does not provide a clear recognisable image but rather demands exploration through fragmented, at times abstract or indistinct representations, enables a critical narrative that diverges from classical image reporting, thereby opening a new perspective on traumatic events and their perception.
A key aspect of this artistic research is the conscious choice of a manual search for images instead of working with artificial intelligence (AI), and the use of augmented reality (AR) through which viewers activate a second, virtual layer of the work, revealing a flood of the processed images. This expansion provides an immersive experience that not only deepens the engagement with the event and its visual content but also prompts reflection on one’s own interaction with media representations. The combination of real and virtual imagery questions the fast-paced consumption of images and the accompanying desensitisation. AR acts as a critical tool to both question the boundary between real and virtual imagery and to transform the relationship to images, leading viewers into a dialogical process with the visual content.
Through the interplay of representations in real and virtual spaces, the boundaries of documentary and visual expression are expanded, creating space for the invisible, the unspeakable, the traumatic, and the ambiguous, which are inherent characteristics of each of the events. The various levels of ATLAS OF THE ESSENCE offer different entry points into these events, enabling an immersive, aesthetic, and sensory experience. The lecture will present the artistic research on alternative documentarisms and the inclusion of AR, using ATLAS OF THE ESSENCE and its various levels as a case study to illustrate and explain these concepts.
Lisa Hoffmann is a PhD candidate of artistic research of the Bauhaus University Weimar, funded by the Heinrich- Böll-Fundation. Before, she worked as photographer and activist in crisis areas like the Mediterranean Sea. Her work focuses on alternative documentarism, which uses multimedial materials and body experiences to create an multisensual approach to crisis, catastrophes and the subjective traumatic experiences of these. Her works and films have been awarded and exhibited internationally.
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