Nick Manolis
Smile Breaks the Somber:
An Augmented Reality Book
This project was created for Emergent Media Production
Fall, 2015 with Prof. Laura Zaylea
https://youtu.be/s-RS4tfXotU
Curatorial statement by Laura Zaylea:
Nick Manolis’ project Smile Breaks the Somber is a book about a man driving through the woods, experiencing déjà vu and trying to remember who he is. Is life real? Is this heaven? Why is this jingle stuck in his head, and who is Chloe? The story unravels mysteriously through multiple media forms including still images, text and videos triggered through an augmented reality app. The book itself is complete and successful, but it’s the augmented reality that brings the story to life. In video vignettes, the protagonist walks along the beach, seeking answers, quietly reflecting and searching for heaven. He drives through the woods and finds a red balloon and a note, presumably written by himself before his death. These cinematic fragments burst from the page when the book is viewed through an iPad or mobile device. The story’s themes seem to cherish the transcendent nature of AR technology, which allows video images to hover over the printed page, tenuous and ghost-like, disorienting and angelic. The videos are there but not there, like the protagonist himself. Smile Breaks the Somber uses integrated media strategies to immerse the reader in a disorienting yet hopeful search for home within the self; readers journey with the protagonist right up until he finds peace and crosses into heaven.
Artist Statement by Nick Manolis:
First and foremost, I wanted to create a project that evoked emotion—I think everyone wants that, though, so I’m nothing special. The idea didn’t have to resonate with every reader, either, but a good portion at least. I had confidence that it would find its audience, because we all go through struggles, times of loneliness, sorrow, and we need someone, something to pull us out from those depths. In came A Smile Breaks the Somber. Initially, I wanted to create a journey across Pennsylvania, literally an augmented tour guide from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. But, soon enough, it evolved into something beyond a simple tour guide—a story. And from there, it became something I wanted to do and I felt I had to. With that, I pitched a character’s journey, originating from a combination of déjà vu and a dream involving Heaven’s whereabouts—a spiritual journey.
Plus, the idea of déjà vu works well with augmented reality (AR), considering it allows you to create a multi-dimensional story that enables video—in this case, virtual content—to overlay physical space—that being, the text itself. Readers nowadays have shorter attention spans, too, so AR, essentially, cures some of that by giving them a sense of being within the pages themselves alongside the character(s)—almost feel a part of it, a connection evoking a level of empathy and/or sympathy. But, I’ll tell you what, I had no clue, no plan of what I was doing until one class period where we were asked to construct a storyboard—something I’d never done before—and I literally drew just a picture of some odd character throwing stones into a stream. In that moment, I knew what I had to do, so I wrote the entire story in one sitting—with obvious revisions later on—and filmed each scene, going off of that simple storyboard, that I knew didn’t require a budget and the help of another, as far as filming. As I filmed, those experiences, while driving to different locations, brought forth more ideas, and I began tying the writing portion into the videos, filling in the gaps to make one coherent piece. And, as a result—without sounding pretentious—I experienced the journey itself. Maybe that made it more authentic, organic, maybe not—I don’t know for sure—but I’d like to think that. – Nick Manolis, 2016