This work, currently sited in Salem, MA, envisions the reenactment of Privateering, used during the Revolutionary War as a form of Congressionally-chartered private naval action (Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, “Letters of Marque”). Salem Privateer vessels were estimated to have captured approximately 445 ships, generating funds for the revolution while acquiring private wealth beyond the needs for warfare. This work features a giant virtual ball of galleon-style ship masts obtained from disassembled ship models accessed from shared 3D model websites. It hovers and rotates out over Derby Wharf, as a gigantic conglomeration sculpture. It evokes both memories of profit mixed with patriotism and current forms of voracious wealth acquisition and politics which test the boundaries of social contracts understood to be the bedrock of American idealism.

iPad screen capture video of GPS located augmented reality sculpture

Will Pappenheimer is a Brooklyn based artist and a founding member of the Manifest.AR international collective who have pioneered works in augmented reality since 2010.

Pappenheimer’s work has been shown at Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA, Los Angeles; San Francisco MOMA; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; FACT, Liverpool, UK; Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair, Istanbul; Fringe Exhibitions in Los Angeles; the ICA, Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; New Museum in New York; the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington; FILE, Sao Paulo, BR; and Turbulance.org. The artist’s works have been featured in Christiane Paulʼs historical editions of “Digital Art,” Art in America, New York Times, Hyperallergic.org, WIRED, EL PAIS, Madrid, and Liberation, Paris. He teaches new media at Pace University, New York.