A Simulation of War
A mixed-reality art installation by Asad J. Malik ’19 brings the war in Syria to safe and familiar places in the U.S., including the Bennington campus, where it was first installed.
The project, “Holograms from Syria,” uses augmented reality to insert life-size photographs associated with the Syrian war into familiar U.S. sites, accessible to viewers who wear Microsoft’s Hololens headsets.
The project has been covered by several media outlets this year, including, most recently, Hyperallergic:
“People told me that trying the experience really affected how they looked at and felt in that space,” Malik said. “Even when you’re not wearing a Hololens anymore, your brain associates that space with those images. This just becomes a reminder that our world is incredibly interconnected and real lives being lost in one part cannot be a mere simulation in another.”