AL GRANO: Augmented Cereals, 2014-16. Images above and below are iPhone screenshots showing the Aurasma app (Geolocation function above), and the image reader function (below) to detect cereal aisle and cereal brands that I have tagged because they reportedly contain GM Corn.

AL GRANO: Augmented Cereals, 2016, two consumers interact with the piece using their smartphones and an app at Jewel Osco, Chicago, USA.

AL GRANO: Augmented Cereals, 2016 video of a consumer interacting with the piece using his smartphones and an app at Jewel Osco, Chicago, USA.

This is an Augmented Reality work in which consumers interact with the work via smartphone in a supermarket breakfast cereal aisle, using an Augmented Reality app.

In absence of comprehensive labeling of foodstus (and because breakfast is the most important meal of the day), I created a project to help consumers learn more about what they eat. Using their smartphones and my app, they scan cereal brands and find out which contain Genetically Modied corn.

The close-up smartphone documents show the image of a domesticated seed from Mexico emerging as “aura” over the cereal box. The seed is electronically etched with text extracted from “Men of Maize” that speaks to ill eects of agribusiness’ exploitation of human and natural resources.

A second iteration of the project lives in a gallery space as seen in the images below, taken at Vermont Studios, USA, in 2016. The work is composed of fabricated miniature samples of cereal boxes representing brands that contain Genetically Modied corn. Visitors to the gallery interact with the work in the same way as in the supermarket; they use their smartphones and an Augmented Reality app to access additional project images and texts.

AL GRANO: Augmented Cereals, 2016, visitors interacting with the work via their smarphones and an AR app. in a galery setting at Vermont Studios.