Future Ghost Library
Interactive installation, California College of the Arts, 2018
Future Ghost Library is an interactive augmented reality archive of CCA’s Meyer Library, an institution which will no longer exist once the college de-commissions its Oakland campus by 2025. A process of so-called “campus unification” will soon see the Oakland campus consolidated within the San Francisco campus. Future Ghost Library delivers the uncanny experience of simultaneity by utilizing AR’s capacity to overlay and reveal: stories and reflections on the Meyer Library’s legacy, as told by the workers and students who inhabit it, are mapped onto the institutional space of the San Francisco campus library.
I developed preliminary sketches related to site specificity and vantage point
While exploring the Simpson Library and speaking with staff who work there, I learned that CCA’s imminent “campus unification” will mean the consolidation of its two satellite campuses in the near future. The pending closure of CCA’s Oakland Library branch became the framing narrative for my design.
I saw impending campus unification as an opportunity for the CCA community to articulate its demands for a future library, and its demands from the college administration more broadly. I began exploring how to connect its two satellite campuses via interactive experiences.
I created a set of secondary sketches exploring the phenomenon of overlays and transmissions between the San Francisco and Oakland campuses.
I used a combination of speculative worksheets, open comment cards, and prompt comment cards to gauge users’ regard for Meyer Library. Comment cards with discrete asks were the most successful at eliciting feedback.
When applied to the rotating ipad stand, haptic feedback provided a discernible framework for interacting with the archive, allowing users to accurately aim the ipad at predictable AR targets. The satisfying click of the viewfinder alerted users that they’d reached a desired vantage point, reinforced prolonged interaction, and provided a framework for experiencing past, present, and future narratives simultaneously.
Outcome: Future Ghost Library was installed in the Simpson Library during April - June 2018, and was shown to the Board of Trustees of the college. It was re-installed in the Graduate Center galleries for CCA’s 2018 accreditation exhibition.
