[PROPOSAL] Appropriation and intervention in the city's traffic signs

[Vxz]

Hi everyone. My name is Victor Gonçalves and I have been researching about space and territory in my artwork through drawing and installations since 2017. Recently I have participated in the artistic residency Poliedro, Incubadora DAO, my research expanded into the field of digital language. Namely A.R.

My goals as an artist in this project have been to use A.R as a form of intervention and appropriation of urban space. That is, to continue the research that was started during the artistic residency. So far I have two prototypes inside the artivive platform (https://artivive.com/). The project is based on two theoretical assumptions: weak universalism by Boris Groys, and The nature of space, technique and time, reason and emotion by Milton Santos.

I have three examples of research that started at the residence and that motivate us to continue the research now with the VR DAO group, the gifs below are made with the cell phone and are potential interventions made and traffic signs, they are still just ideas and potential of what can be done.

If you download the artivive app on your mobile phone you will be able to see the experiment already available on their platform. When activating your camera in the app you should aim at this image below.

General purpose:

Develop research on diminished reality within the concept of augmented reality. In the near future to have an artificial intelligence that recognizes patterned surfaces in public space and when recognizing these surfaces, activate my artistic intervention.

With the implementation of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals in 1978, many members of the European Union now utilize a standard set of signs. Traffic sign is the contextual cutout within the urban space that I will use. I will delimit to the group of regulatory traffic signs that looks like “Regulatory No Parking Or No Stopping”, or “Regulatory No Entry”, among others.

For this I will have to:

• full access to artivive platform;
• to make a virtual space to show the result;

For the future months, prepare a strategic plan on how to have an exclusive app for the project.

For this I will have to:

• Having a partnership with an artificial intelligence developer;
• Make the project’s app available on the appstores;
• Have a website to display results.

Specific purpose for the first month

The European regulatory traffic sign standard is composed of 18 boards and it will be with these traffic signs that I will work in the first part of the project, The proposal is to work with up to 3 traffic signals per month. It makes them available as NFT in Mintbase and together in the Artivive platform. In other words, in this first month I will produce up to 3 virtual interventions in augmented reality on 3 different traffic signs.

For that I will have to:

• Have access to artivive’s professional plan $10,0;
• Field work to collect more materials about traffic signs - 3h;
• Data processing of field collection 3h;
• I’m going to create 3 video art to intervene in traffic sign - 20h;
• Test plan of prototypes with another 3 people and devices - 3h;
• Update prototypes after testing and necessary repairs - 5h;
• Show the first results through social midia and ask for feedback - 3h;
• Write a report of the first part process and present the plan for the next steps - 3h

total 40h

Funding

For the first month I will spend 40h and I will need $800 (± 140N) already including the software and upgrade in Artivive platform.

Short Bio

Victor Gonçalves (São Paulo, 1989) has a degree in Geography from UNESP (2013) and studied visual arts - drawing at Ar.Co in Lisbon. He worked as a teacher for three years in public schools in Brazil, in addition to coordinating cultural and educational projects in the Heliópolis favela (SP). He won the Young Scientist award (CNPQ / FAPESP) for using drawing as a methodology for analyzing the daily use of public space. In 2020 he had a video selected for the Dobra festival at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro. In the same year he participated in the artistic residency - Grão in Aveiro, Portugal. In 2021 he had his first solo exhibition entitled “Por um Fio” curated by Cristiana Tejo at NowHere, this year he participated in the Nectart artist residency in Barcelona with the exhibition at Espronceda gallery in July within the Art Nou festival. The issues of space, material and affections are the central element of his artistic research and subjects such as matter, movement and time are the devices. Going from drawing as a scientific methodology to drawing as an artistic investigation, he makes his work an act of reading and creating places. He has participated in collective exhibitions in Brazil and Portugal having as its most recent work the installation in the Encruzilhada project, Lisbon, Portugal. And is currently part of the Risco Coletivo and NowHere groups. Lives and works between São Paulo and Lisbon.

Instagram, website:

goncalvesvictor | Instagram | Linktree

[frnvpr]

@Vxz

For this I will have to:

• Form partnerships to develop artificial intelligence;
• Make an exclusive virtual intelligence app for the project because in the first tests we found limits within the Artivive platform that could restrict the possibilities of creation.
• to make a platform to show our NFT together mintbase

hey @Vxz! Happy to see this proposal. It shows a lot of promise, but I do have a few doubts. You can use the following replies to then edit the proposal, if it ends up being necessary.

• what kind of partnerships? Do you need help from a developer? Maybe @sainthiago could help with this. What skills are you lacking for taking this project to it’s final stages?
• do you want to create a platform to showcase this work, or will you use mintbase.io, for example?

@Vxz

four parts of the project, each of them spending a month of work.t.

• You mention 4 months/4 phases for this project. Can you explain what the phases are in more detail? The theoretical aspects are clear, I feel, but the practical roadmap lacks a bit of clarity. This would help us evaluate if the project is viable within our own resources.

@Vxz

Sub total 1 parte = 50h

• The hourly value you present if perfectly reasonable. So, you are asking for:
  – 600$ for November
  – 600$ for December
  – 600$ for January
  – 600$ for February,
  each representing 50h of work on this project?

• I am worried this doesn’t take into account work on the exclusive app. Would that be paid with this budget, or would be needed more $? I think it’s best to present every expected cost. If, for example, you would request a developer already working in the ecosystem, how many hours are expected of work, etc?

• I would say this is aligned with our global budgets and reasonable. So, at least for me, it’s just a matter of clarifying the roadmap so that my fellow council members can judge the project in its entirety.

thank you for submitting the proposal!

[Vxz]

Hi, @frnvpr. Thank you for your questions, I’ll try to answer… I prefer answer here, and finally edit the post at once. Or what do you suggest?

Well…

@frnvpr

what kind of partnerships? Do you need help from a developer? Maybe @sainthiago could help with this. What skills are you lacking for taking this project to it’s final stages?

Yep! I remember the first talk about augmented reality at the Poliedro Residence with Sergio Rafael. And using Unity and Fuvoria to create some things. I believe this software is excellent for the project, however I do not master it and I will need a partner to develop the idea together with me in the second stage of the project. Thanks for indication, I’ll start to talking to @sainthiago.

@frnvpr

do you want to create a platform to showcase this work, or will you use mintbase.io, for example?

Uhn… When I saw about create a platform I think about just having a website as a repository of processes and final products, but directly linked to mintbase as an NFT platform.

@frnvpr

• You mention 4 months/4 phases for this project. Can you explain what the phases are in more detail? The theoretical aspects are clear, I feel, but the practical roadmap lacks a bit of clarity. This would help us evaluate if the project is viable within our own resources.

For this questions I thought that way:
I will only address traffic signals from the regulatory category. There are a total of 18 traffic signs in this category. I split this amount by 4 months, the first month being only 3 because I will be learning better with the artivive platform in the professional version. At the same time, I will already plan how to become independent of the artivive platform because, for example, it has a viewing and video time limit which for my project will be a negative point of the platform. In other words, in parallel and simultaneously the production of the first 3 videos using artivive, I will also be studying about Unity, seeking a partnership with an expert. Maybe I’d better add more hours dedicated to this study about Unity, what do you think about?

Over the next few months as I have planned

second month

1. from the feedback obtained from the first 3 works, improve the technical part of the interventions.
2. develop the first prototype of the virtual installation in Unity.
3. produce 5 videos of virtual intervention in real space.
4. Evaluate the prototype in Unity
5. Invite at least 3 new people to test the app intervention
6. Disseminate and make available 5 more videos of interventions through the artivive platform.
7. Make NFT the top 3 in Mintbase
8. Start building the website.
9. Field work to collect materials

third month

1. from the feedback obtained from the new 5 works, improve the technical part of the interventions.
2. Test the virtual installation prototype in Unity.
3. produce 5 videos of virtual intervention in real space. 3 already designed for Unity.
4. Invite at least 5 new people to test the intervention in both Unity and Artivive.
5. Disseminate and make available another 5 intervention videos through the artivive platform, if possible also through Unity.
6. Make NFT all results obtained so far in Mintbase
7. Start testing with the site prototype.
8. Field work to collect materials

fourth month

1. from the feedback obtained from the 5, improve the technical part of the interventions.
2. Completely transition to the App developed by Unity.
3. produce 5 videos of virtual intervention in real space.
4. Invite at least 5 new people to test the intervention produced for Unity.
5. Disseminate and make available 5 more intervention videos through Unity.
6. The first 13 results will also be available in the app created with Unity.
7. Make NFT all results obtained so far in Mintbase
8. The app and website live, but not yet complete.

fifth month

1. Focus on promoting the website and the app, for that I will have to:
   1.1. have the website and app fully working.
   1.2. Make a virtual exhibition of the results obtained on the site
   1.3. Produce a document, maybe a catalogue, of the process in the last 4 months.
2. Assess and plan if the project expands into other road signs or even other signs.
3. Apply for exhibitions with similar themes inside and outside Portugal
4. Make NFT all results obtained so far in Mintbase

(Maybe is better to update this work plan right in the proposal, no?)

Well, I see that just because of your question the project has already advanced to more than 4 months and I will need to review the workload of it as a whole, what can you suggest that I do? I think this also has consequences for your last question.

The first month I think the budget is reasonable at $600.

However the other budgets will have to be adjusted. Since I feel the need for the team to be greater within this project.

1. website design
2. app develop
3. Participation fee to test prototypes
4. My workload will go up because of demand.

However, now I have to better research the budget on how much each professional described above costs. Does VR dao have any other similar experience so that it can compare values?

Wow. Giant text, I hope it’s comprehensive and not lost in ideas. hahah

[frnvpr]

eheh, obrigado! That was detailed and I think the right questions are being made. Let’s wait a bit for others to give their opinion and then you can update the original proposal.

@sainthiago @microchipgnu any thoughts on this proposal?

[sainthiago]

hello everyone!

first of all I want to congratulate @Vxz for the project and all the work you have put in it.
@frnvpr
regarding the development issue, to give you a little context, my developer experience with VR is web oriented. which means I have no experience with the technologies you intend to use.
another issue that I see is the fact that I already have a development timeline in other projects and the time is short.

if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
thank you

[frnvpr]

thx @sainthiago! feel free to give ur opinion on the proposal, nonetheless

[Vxz]

Hi, @sainthiago, Thank you! I hope we can develop some project together in the near future.

[Vxz]

Hi guys, @microchipgnu, @sainthiago, @JulianaM, @Samiasns, @frnvpr, @nearestchico, @squattingPigeon, @nico
I updated the proposal and would like your opinion, feel free to ask me questions. I’m new here, I still feel a little lost, but I keep trying.
Basically I reduced the expectation to a short time in order to make the project more sustainable and consistent. So I can really meet the stipulated goals, get closer to how the Near ecosystem works, and I can plan the next steps with more concrete data.
Thank you!

[JulianaM]

The project sounds great I still want to get more opinions from other council members…

I have just a comment about this:

@Vxz

The first month I think the budget is reasonable at $600.

However the other budgets will have to be adjusted. Since I feel the need for the team to be greater within this project.

If it’s not possible to set up the total amount of the project right now, we cannot guarantee that it is going to be 100% funded till the end.
I suggest we can go month by month and figuring it out, starting in November. We would follow the reports of your project and we can keep the dialogue open. Thanks for splitting the activities per month so we can have access to the overview of your idea

[Vxz]

Exactly @JulianaM, Thank you for your contribution

I believe it is more sustainable and consistent if I report month after month.
Even for this first month, I decided to replan the goals, adjust the time dedicated to the project and the budget. I think it’s best to start slowly. hehe

[Samiasns]

Hello @Vxz !

First, I would like to say that I think the project is very interesting and I am happy to know that you are excited to continue the work and research started at Poliedro

However, I think your proposal might be a bit conflicting with the objectives of this DAO in particular because your idea envolves works in Augmented Reality and not Virtual Reality, which is the focus of this DAO. I know that the two technologies have their similarities, but in the case of the proposal presented, I don’t see connections with virtual reality technology, only with AR.

The artivive platform that you are thinking developing your work is really good and efficient in creating AR works. In the case of the other platform mentioned, Unity, this is already more suitable for VR content. For this reason I think that in the case of developing this project with VR DAO, it would be more interesting to use Unity, so you can create works to develop in virtual reality.

I suggest that the project can be developed as @JulianaM said, month by month, and with this aspect more focused on VR.

In any case, I’m glad you are committed to continuing to think and produce content in the technologies presented during the artistic residency

[Vxz]

Hello @Samiasns! Thanks for your reply. Thanks to you, I discovered Artivive and I intend to start this research with it.

The question about A.R and V.R is a really interesting subject to think about. When I was writing this project, I started an investigation about it and one of the sources I looked for was Sérgio Eliseu’s presentation and in it I found this Venn diagram.

Here is the example of Steve Mann’s research where the scales of how Media Reality is thought are organized. This helped me to know if the project would fit within the VR DAO proposal or not. My fault not to have presented it, but I didn’t present it because it is a more theoretical discussion and it helped me to situate myself in this ecosystem and at this moment of project presentation it didn’t make sense. Well, my desire in developing the research is to contribute to the discussion about VR-AR, or better, MEDiated reality in the context of contemporary art.

I think it’s a project that seems to be very successful and I’m really excited, but caution tells me that I really have to think of the project as a process to be thought out month by month. And I’m going to need your company in this new venture.

[Samiasns]

These theoretical questions involving the definition of what is virtual reality and what is augmented reality and what are the differences between them are a still developing field.

But a consensus among several authors is precisely that the difference between these two technologies lies in the user’s level of immersion. In AR, the user is not inserted into the virtual content to be able to view the content itself, the user still has a lot of connection with the real world. That’s where the difference lies, in VR the user experiences the content within the content itself.

In the example of the table presented by professor Eliseu, we can even see that not everything that is AR is VR. There is a difference between the two types of content.
I said all that because the project you are proposing is precisely on this space outside of what is considered VR. The contents made by artivive are AR and cannot be framed as VR. That is why i suggest you work with Unity because with this platform its possible to create contents for virtual reality, which in this case is the focus of this dao.

I also believe that the project has a lot of potential and we are together in this adventure of discovering new technologies for the art world

[frnvpr]

hello all!,

this discussions are indeed important and may very well create the need for different DAOs to appear.

There are plenty of discussions, in the ecosystem, about this topic. Since the funds are limited, asking a DAO to financially support projects outside its reach might be problematic.

We might end up supporting both VR and AR in this DAO, it’s up to the council members to give their opinion on that.

However, we do need to prioritize projects that impact our core interest, and this month the budget is right on the Creatives DAO cap, leaving no money left for other projects.

@Vxz

For the time being, I agree with @Samiasns comment. I would love to see an edited proposal which includes VR in its scope. In addition, the format of the proposal can be adapted, so it fits better in the current $ constraints the DAO has. On this note, the community is discussing the possibility of allocating all developer costs to a specific DAO Vertical, which would free up some budget for community proposals. Please keep an eye on that, as we have greater constraints than usual.

I will add detailed feedback, in part for you to understand my reservations regarding this proposal, and in part to help creating a better proposal:

• the proposal is focused on AR, with no VR element

• in general, the type of proposals/bounties that are rewarded by the hour is limited. Maybe it’s not such a good idea to reward hourly work for projects in the 1st stages. That should have been addressed by us in the first feedback we gave you, and we failed to to so, I’m sorry.

• when deciding the ‘just’ rewards to give to a project, I can’t evaluate the number of hours spent, but the interest of the proposal for the development of the DAO or for furthering our specific field of work; I feel the amount requested is too high for the return presented (3 NFTs to be sold on our Mintbase store).

• I felt that lack of previous expertise would be detrimental to the development of your proposal. Since it’s trying to integrate web design, programming, AR, it has a lot of moving parts and would need a bigger team. Starting small and growing from there feels safer.

• a final comment about funds: the May Hackathon, developed by the Creatives Vertical, was really interesting in the system they used to engage with innovation; ideas were supported by ± 30$; a visual presentation was then supported with an extra ±50$, then a video presentation, then a github submission. I am not suggesting we take the same route, but this serves well to show the logic of increasing rewards ‘along the way’. So, adopting some kind of ‘simple proposal, small reward’, just to explore an idea, and then increasing the ambition of the proposal if the council members engage in a positive way, feels to me like the best way forward.

I really hope you can take this feedback and develop a stronger proposal. Thank you. Abraço

[frnvpr]

Hello @Vxz

a couple of council members might still give their detailed feedback. However, we have decided to award you 25% of your initial request (800x0.25=200$). This amount is to support you in developing a better proposal and, hopefully, some kind of prototype. We look forward to receiving a more developed proposal.

Feel free to create a payout in our astrodao (sputnikdao is no longer used).

Abraço.

[Vxz]

Hi @frnvpr , Hi everyone. How are you?

Firstly, I apologize for the delay in responding, I’m traveling in Brazil after almost five years without having been here, so the demands were greater than I expected.

Second, thank you very much for the quality of the peer-to-peer feedback. I perfectly understand the position of the council and a lot of things make sense, such as, for example, the project being linked to research in VR and not just in AR.

And finally, I’m very grateful for the encouragement you give me in presenting a new proposal, thinking carefully about the notes you made. I can say that it is mainly designed for small prototypes and working in progress in VR. I already have in mind some notes that I have been thinking about along the way.

Um grande abraço a todos!

[frnvpr]

@Vxz

And finally, I’m very grateful for the encouragement you give me in presenting a new proposal, thinking carefully about the notes you made.

We’re happy to help!