Digital & Dead

Digital&Dead is an immersive Augmented Reality (AR) artwork by Sarah Derat and Rachel McRae. This piece investigates digital ghosts on social media; the ever-living zombified profiles of deceased users on Facebook, the persistence of one’s data and the process of online mourning.

The app interacts with a series of international exhibitions by artists Rachel McRae and Sarah Derat. For each show, the artists provide one or several AR target(s)/marker(s) in the exhibition space and a QR code to swiftly download the app.

Please follow the next steps :

Step 1: Download the app using the QR code provided in the gallery.

Step 2: Open the app and point your smart device towards the floor-targets fabricated by the artists in the exhibition. It will immediately trigger the AR experience.

You will be able to walk around and examine the sculpture, wielding the smart device like a window into the unseen. The sculptural form morphs seamlessly through randomised grave markers (ranging from Victorian obelisks to clunky Minecraft tombstones) and monolithic servers used in data-storage centres. This piece includes a soundtrack created in-collaboration with musician/producer Vincent Cavanagh.

Digital&Dead is supported using public funding by Arts Council England and Canadian Council for The Arts.

The app was developed in collaboration with Sam Roe & Kenneth Lim.