PickrickAR vs Hamilton Was Here

We are exploring Augmented Reality as a way of making history visible in a location-based installation that recreates events that happened over 8 months in the 1960s, on a site that is now part of the Georgia Tech campus. On July 3 1964, the day after the Civil Rights Act was passed, George Willis, Jr, Albert L. Dunn, and Woodrow T. Lewis, all ministers and students at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, attempted to gain entry to the Pickrick restaurant a notorious bastion of resistance to integration. The events of that day became the basis of the first lawsuit brought under that Act, filed by the legendary Constance Baker Motley of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Over the next few months the owner of the restaurant, future Georgia governor Lester Maddox, tried renaming the restaurant and changing the signage to evade the legal process, but a rotating group of non-violent protesters risked violence at the hands of armed mobs in order to repeatedly demonstrate that the restaurant was acting in violation of the Civil Rights Act. They eventually forced Maddox to close and so that on February 23 1965 Jack Googer, who worked on Peachtree Street, was able to peacefully sit down to lunch in the now renamed Gateway Cafeteria. Soon after, the restaurant was bought by Georgia Tech, and after about 50 years of use as an administration building and a campus police station, it has now been torn down to make way for the Eco-Commons. Our project is an exercise in using Augmented Reality storytelling to make the invisible visible in two ways. First we are working to project the image of the building and animated recreations of the protests onto the very changed current landscape. Second, we are attempting to beyond the usual protagonist of the story – the segregationist fried chicken seller — to bring into the non-violent protesters into the foreground.

Using gorgeously detailed period maps and artwork, the HAMILTON WAS HERE app grants you access to everywhere Hamilton traveled, lived, worked, politicked, and took to arms during his dramatic life and career. This visual and well-researched geographical compendium tells his story with information and context you won't find in any one other place. Whether you're part of the Broadway play fandom or a lover of American history, you will learn so much more about this historical figure and the world in which he lived. Take the app on a road trip or elevate your walking tour of New York City or Philadelphia! Make American history come to life for your children or students! Discover the sometimes surprising places Hamilton spent time. Was one them where you live right now? Features: • Four immersive, fully interactive period maps comprising the main theaters of Hamilton's life: mainland North America, New York City, Philadelphia, and the Caribbean. • Tappable, glowing placemarkers for every location associated with Alexander Hamilton. • Every single site of historical interest is accompanied by accurate and thoughtfully-sourced artwork depicting how it looked in Hamilton’s time. • An in-depth article for every location, analyzing and commenting on the place’s significance from colonial times to today, and exactly why and when Hamilton was there—complete with verified quotes, granular dates, fascinating trivia, and insight from a New York Times bestselling author. • Content not just on Hamilton but many of his contemporaries, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Aaron Burr, the Marquis de Lafayette, the Schuyler Sisters, generals and officers in the contemporary U.S. military. Wide-ranging subjects including the American Revolution, the evolution of the United States’ cities and towns, the French and Indian War, the writing of the U.S. Constitution, the Quasi-War with France, and the foundation of the modern American economy. • Over eighty five locations, and counting! Including newly uncovered details about the location of events like Hamilton’s friend’s John Laurens duel with General Charles Lee outside Philadelphia!