Theatre ARchive

Trailer

Project Info

Introduction

Theatre ARchive is a collaboration project with the world-renowned La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City to enhance visitors’ immersive experiences in La MaMa Archive with augmented reality (AR). Established in 1961, La MaMa maintains an environment of uncensored creative freedom for artists. Since the early 1970s, La MaMa Archive has expanded its digital collection of photographs, papers, production footage, show files, and more. In addition to the existing one, our goal is to create a window to the archive and to expand access to its rich artistic heritage through Web AR interactions. Throughout the semester, we customized different interactions for five selected archive items and categorized them into three types.

Experience

Throughout the semester, we customized different interactions for five selected archive items and categorized them into three types.

• We make guests become performers with Na Haaz Zan masks using face filter.
• We make guests become performers of a pink puppet from LOCO7 using body tracking.
• We augment info for the La MaMa Collage outside the Ellen Stuart Theatre using image tracking.
• We bring the La Marie Vison poster alive and make it interactive using image tracking.
• We bring the Carmilla bench alive and show how this prop is used during the show.

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My Contributions

• Quickly identified and onboarded the team onto Niantic’s 8th Wall platform, rapidly learning the framework and selecting the right tools to enable efficient WebAR development under tight deadlines.
• Implemented the entire front-end with HTML/CSS, ensuring cross-device compatibility and smooth performance.
• Designed and developed five interactive features, including a face filter for virtual masks, body tracking to embody stage puppets, and image recognition that made posters, props, and costumes interactive.