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Augmented Reality: June 20th, New York CityBy William Ball
The first time I ever actually saw augmented reality, I was living in Albany, NY. My friend loaded LAYAR onto his phone and we walked around our neighborhood, watching real estate data instantiate alongside buildings. We were surprised at how much our shabby rowhouse was worth, how little the Dominican market, a block up. No wireframes hanging in the sky, nobody around to build such things, only a database with a story we already knew; that, some decade earlier, the city fathers tried and failed to gentrify our part of the city. Tax breaks were granted for filling formerly gutted houses and replacing rotten wood stoops with poured concrete ones, zoning laws were tweaked so that a bar could occupy the first floor of a little, stand-alone house a few doors down. Property values rose, but not far enough. Thus college students and those of us too poor to move uptown into suburban style homes, or downtown to proper apartments, were left in rental units among a formerly self-contained community. You’ve likely never been to Albany, but you could know the same story, seeing those numbers the right way.Read more
[via Annals of Americus]
…You should really be reading Annals of Americus, to say nothing of following its editor Matthew Newton.
Also, if you skip out before the end of my piece, please read this post from Kevin Slavin and consider donating to save Cooper Union.](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw9b2j050X1qzjp43o1_500.jpg)
Augmented Reality: June 20th, New York City
By William BallThe first time I ever actually saw augmented reality, I was living in Albany, NY. My friend loaded LAYAR onto his phone and we walked around our neighborhood, watching real estate data instantiate alongside buildings. We were surprised at how much our shabby rowhouse was worth, how little the Dominican market, a block up. No wireframes hanging in the sky, nobody around to build such things, only a database with a story we already knew; that, some decade earlier, the city fathers tried and failed to gentrify our part of the city. Tax breaks were granted for filling formerly gutted houses and replacing rotten wood stoops with poured concrete ones, zoning laws were tweaked so that a bar could occupy the first floor of a little, stand-alone house a few doors down. Property values rose, but not far enough. Thus college students and those of us too poor to move uptown into suburban style homes, or downtown to proper apartments, were left in rental units among a formerly self-contained community. You’ve likely never been to Albany, but you could know the same story, seeing those numbers the right way.
Read more[via Annals of Americus]
…You should really be reading Annals of Americus, to say nothing of following its editor Matthew Newton.
Also, if you skip out before the end of my piece, please read this post from Kevin Slavin and consider donating to save Cooper Union.
