When you arrive at Palm City, the bright and enthusiastic atmosphere will keep you wanting more. You’ll see golden sunshine shining on the content, relaxed and motivated people living in Palm City. You’ll feel alive, rejuvenated and in a place surrounded by the fascinating palm trees. Even though there is a lively atmosphere, there is nothing perfect about this city. In Palm City you will always be wanting more.

By Charli Tankel

When walking into the lush, mysterious forest that houses this vast city, nothing will seem out of the ordinary.  When looking around, nothing will appear out of place or inhabited.  There are rocks on the ground and thick tree trunks dot the topography of the land.  Only when you look up, to the treetops, will you see some clue of another civilization.  You will see monkeys swinging from luscious, green vines, or so you think.  Only the man willing to go out of his way will discover the entrance to the city.  Once found, you will see a ladder inside a hollowed out oak tree.  At the top of the ladder your mind will burst with surprise as it tries to take in and fathom the sights it sees.  Those monkeys you saw earlier are actually the residents of City Verde.  The city is their playground.  They swing from plant to plant in organized chaos as their world flourishes around them.  That is all they seem to want to do, or have to do in their everyday lives.  Their civilization is invisible to those who choose to ignore them, but they reward those who make the effort to explore.

By Riley Nelson

     The purpose of this studio was to see cities through different perspectives. Our job was to figure out what we wanted to map. We used Central Square as our experimental location. We needed to be creative and willing to try different things if we wanted to be successful. We went on derives, casual walks, in which we were forced to see things through a different lense in hopes of discovering different parts of the city that we may have not seen or experienced before. 

     Our idea was to choose certain storefronts or landmarks to use as trigger images for an app called Aurasma. Aurasma augments reality so users can watch a story unfold right before their eyes as they hold up their iPad, or some such product, to the image. Making these extraordinary videos took a lot of work, patience, and technical competence. Our group's original plan was to make at least four Aurasmas, but we only ended up with two in the end.  The first trigger image was Cheapo Records. This video took about three days to complete as our idea morphed from writing a review to paying homage to James Brown. This Aurasma is trying to show the viewer that the store is worth visiting because it has new, cool vibe while also still recognizing the copious amounts of artists that make today's music what it is.  James Brown's record 'I Feel Good' was playing in the background in hopes to engage the viewer. The other trigger image we used was the store sign of University Stationery.  This Aurasma did not take as long because we had the same idea from beginning to end.  The woman who works at the store was very friendly and welcoming to us when we first visited, so we wanted to create a video that had that same type of hominess to it. The video ended up painting and drawing different homey scenes to an acoustic song.

     While making these different Aurasmas, we realized that everything around us has a different  story or history to it. We learned that being aware of our surroundings exposes us to the different sites the city has to offer. After this studio we have come to appreciate the hidden treasures that surround us.