City Strata
These projects—The Occlusion Layer and The Emergence Layer—use augmented reality to change how people encounter the surfaces of cities—plaques, murals, monuments—that have become invisible through familiarity.
1. The Occlusion Layer (Los Angeles)
The Occlusion Layer
reveals hidden histories behind commemorative plaques. The title is a play on the inversion layer, the atmospheric phenomenon that traps smog over the city—fitting for a place where history is routinely erased and built over. Through Snapchat or Snap Spectacles, viewers discover AR "floats" derived from paper models representing key moments of occluded LA history. The project was exhibited as part of A Parade of Augmented Events at ArtCenter's DTLA gallery in 2021.
The chief prototype developed for this project tells the story of the massacre of Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles in 1871, the largest mass lynching in American history. At the time this project was developed, the only memorial to this event was a small historical marker inset in the sidewalk—a thin gesture toward an immense atrocity. In the AR experience, 19 burning gold paper ingots (yuan bao) emanate from behind the plaque to honor the dead.
To create the 3D model, I first folded a piece of joss paper into the traditional yuan bao form by hand, then captured it via photogrammetry. For me, this matters: the physical act of folding paper—a craft embedded in ritual and mourning—brings a human touch to the digital experience that a purely modeled object couldn't carry. It's a way of honoring what flat markers fail to hold.
VIDEO: 1871 Massacre AR Experience (1:25)
2. The Emergence Layer (Detroit)
The Emergence Layer takes a different approach: rather than uncovering what's hidden, it amplifies what's already there. Detroit has become a major mural city, the murals' emergence mirroring the city's broader creative resurgence—but attention fades as paintings become part of the landscape.
This project brings murals back to life—in a first prototype, the painted rectangles of tree leaves spawn outward from the surface as 3D particles, as if the image were generating itself into physical space.
VIDEO: Prototyping AR Mural Experience (2:15)
© DANDY INDUSTRIES 2026