Samara Smith

documentary + technology + social practice

Virtual Aquapolis

Supported by an NEH Digital Designs for the Public grant, Virtual Aquapolis examines the transformation of New York harbor from a rich, biodiverse maze of marshlands, reefs and estuaries into the urban waterways surrounding NYC today.   Wearing VR headsets equipped…

Aquapolis 2100

Created in a Works on Water residency on Governors Island and screened internationally as part of the Under the Subway Video Art Festival, Aquapolis 2100 explores New York City’s rising sea levels, which could rise up 6 feet by 2100….

Central Park: Democratic Playground

Delivered through an innovative “location aware” smartphone app (Detour), Central Park: Democratic Playground utilized responsive GPS triggers to adjust with the speed and the path of the user, creating an immersive, personalized experience. Narrated by Adrian Benepe, who served as New York’s…

Commotion

An augmented reality tour set in the Queens Museum’s Panorama, Commotion examines NYC through the lens of the daily commute. Participants help up smartphones or tablets at spots around the Panorama to see the maps of individual commutes laid over…

On Hamburger Square

Created for Elsewhere Museum, this Virtual Reality sound montage is a community portrait of Greensboro’s Hamburger Square told through the stories of its citizens exploring the past, present, and future of the city’s historic crossroads. Augmented Reality links montages of community…

Anamorphosis

Created for the Open Source Gallery, Anamorphosis was a spatial and relational exploration of what makes and defines a neighborhood, set in, and inspired by, the area surrounding the gallery. The exhibit’s video and photo installations sought to collectively make visible…

Tell-A-Commute

Designed for the New York Transit Museum’s Platform series, Tell-A-Commute was a crowdsourced neighborhood photo diary documenting the collective observations of New Yorkers on their daily commute. T​his participatory project used smartphone photography and interactive texting to compile a collaborative visual portrait of…

Chain Reaction (Westwood)

Locative Game exhibited at the Hammer Museum as part of the group show, Game Room. Designed to bring visitors out of the gallery and into the surrounding neighborhood, players picked up instructions at the gallery and used them to navigate…

Anyplace Brooklyn

Anyplace, Brooklyn

Anyplace, Brooklyn, an audio walking tour of Downtown Brooklyn, premiered at Conflux, the annual New York Festival for Contemporary Psychogeography, in September, 2007.  Participants described the experience as “eye-opening,” “multi-layered,” “complex,” “nuanced,” and “informative and thoughtful.” “Part art project, part…