Baghdad Skyline

http://www.baghdadskyline.com

Project by Mark Skwarek, Code by Joseph Hocking, 3D Tech. & Networking by Felix Lu, and advised by Damon Baker

Mark Skwarek is a new media artist based in Bushwick, NY. He is currently working with projects that involve real time technologies, which are used to overlay actual physical reality with virtual reality-augmented imagery and environment. ..

Despite the rapidly escalating violence in Iraq, daily stories of horror are often pushed to the back pages of the paper. The project Baghdad Skyline is a grim reminder of the death and devastation the Iraqi people face on a daily basis in the wake of America’s misguided invasion. Baghdad Skyline transforms New York City into a war-torn battle ground that parallels Baghdad. The aim of this piece is to increase awareness of the daily violence faced by the Iraqi people.

The project overlays New York City with a proportionate amount of violence and destruction in real-time as that of the the people of Baghdad. Two digital cameras [in NY] send a real-time panoramic image of NYC to the show in Boston. The video streams are augmented with real-time explosions and trailing smoke. The explosions and trailing smoke are dictated by information parsed from the Internet related to violence in Iraq. The size of the included explosions will be scaled to match those taking place in Iraq. The project takes into account the population densities as well population movement according to the time of day in both cities.

Mark will be collaborating with Joseph Hocking, Felix Lu, and advised by Damon Baker, on his SOUNDSCAPE installation.Link:

Mark Skwarek:

http://www.markskwarek.com/

Joseph Hocking:

http://www.newarteest.com/

Felix Lu:

http://www.lovinfelix.com/

Damon Baker:

www.myspace.com/ninetyoneangels/