Freestanding

Freestanding, 2011

Augmented Reality Installation, Commission for the gateways exhibition

Presenting two towers in augmented reality on smart phones and telling their stories with drawings and video, Freestanding invites audiences to compare the concepts and contexts in which the structures were conceived. One of the towers was never built, but managed to become one of the most recognizable examples of the constructivist movement and is considered one of the symbols of modernity in the early twentieth century—Vladimir Tatlin’s project for the four hundred meter high Monument to the Third International (1919–20). The other tower is Arcelor Mittal Orbit, designed by Anish Kapoor for the Olympic Games in 2012, which is expected to become a landmark of London. Nearly a century divides the two projects; in that time huge changes in technology and society have taken place, although the political need for such symbols of progress and power remains largely the same.

The two towers will be recast and, with the aid of GPS technology, positioned as virtual monuments in the city of Tallinn. They will appear on smartphones using Android OS systems and Iphones. During the gateways exhibition, augmented reality models of the towers will be available for download and visitors of the city can see them on their smartphones. In the gallery space an installation will tell the story of the towers in drawings and objects.

Towers serve propaganda purposes. Their ideas rely on the well‐established model of creating symbols out of gigantic technical and architectural constructions. Petko Dourmana ridicules such strategies by reducing these architectural monuments to purely virtual representations.