Elements of Oz was The Builders Association's deconstruction of the landmark film and cultural touchstone, The Wizard of Oz. Taking the film's technological spectacle as inspiration, we decided to include a spectacle of our own, augmented reality.
I designed and developed a companion app for the show that provided the audience another layer of their experience. We had several methods of activating the performance using the audience's devices; we pushed text, video and audio content to the users, such as a YouTube chorus of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," informational text, spatialized munchkin laughter and more.
The highlights of the piece were moments in which we augmented the physical scenery with digital elements, such as a sepia-toned cyclone, animated Munchkinland flowers, a poppy field and flying monkeys. We used marker-based AR to coordinate performer's staging with virtual elements, such as the arrival of Glinda from her giant floating bubble.
The app was developed in collaboration with Kevan Loney, Larry Shea and John Cleater.