About The Workshop
Workshop participants are encouraged to discover public spaces where Black technofossils and monuments are missing and digitally mark and document them using augmented reality. Participants are encouraged to use internet platforms such as social media to share and unearth the overlooked, the forgotten, and the unknown stories of Black Canadian existence and legacy in Canada. This process of shaping the past is done by learning about the different site histories and speculating the future in the present. The artwork for VerCetty's workshop is called - Ancestral Technofossil (please see about for more information).
Inspired by Montreal's Black Community Resource Centre Memoryscape project and Camille Turner Black Grange project of her Afronautic research lab project series done in 2018, this workshop is an interactive walking tour that contains the use of digital media and augmented reality experiences. The workshop aims to "shape" the past by documenting some of Toronto and Montreal's missing Black technofossils from the past, present, and future using Augmented Reality. The hope is to build a database that can be used as a consultation for the future monuments that could and should be created across Canada.
In the workshop, participants will visit various locations that range from historical, existing and potential monument sites. Participants will use a smart device like their smartphone, tablet or laptop to place the augmented reality work - Ancestral Technofossil, digitally into the recommended historical sites. Once the Ancestral Technofossil is set, participants will snap a video or picture to document and mark the place where the historical technofossil is missing. While at the sites, the user of Augmented Reality can interact with the art. Each side of the Ancestral Technofossil monument projects a figure who currently does not have a memorial and whose tribute could go anywhere for their local, national, and global contributions.
For Montreal, the selected leaders are Mathieu Da Costa, Michaëlle Jean, Pharaoh Freeman. For Toronto, the chosen leaders are Peggy Pompadour, Jean Augustine, and Saron Gebresellassi.
Participants are encouraged to be a part of the journey to discover spaces and places that Black technofossils are missing. Using the augmented reality monument, Ancestral Technofossil, participants have six recommended sites to document. They are asked to take a picture with the augmented reality placed in the scene on their digital device. Participants are also encouraged to share on social media and the site for others to see and help build the database. These photos will become a part of an archive and would serve as a support for more Black technofossils to exist in the real world beyond the digital.