Hundreds of Millions of Messages for Change with Augmented Reality

Our worlds are burning. 

Peaceful Protests in Los Angeles on May 30. Photo: Quinn Matthews

The protector became the killer. Peaceful protests and adjacent riots have emerged nationwide. The sense of helplessness in America is only exacerbated by the number of unemployed climbing to over 44 million and confirmed cases of COVID-19 to over 2.5 million confirmed cases with over 125,000 deaths.

To incite change and reinvent the broken systems that discourage progress, we must individually assume responsibility.  The right to make a change is not reserved for one privileged or disadvantaged group, we share the same obligation. 

With art, we can reimagine and improve the existing organizational structures of society. Historically, artists of various disciplines have served as a vehicle of awareness and change. Authors, musicians, painters, playwrights, photographers, and directors have all helped to shift public opinion and drive meaningful impact.

While studying the organization and design of cities and towns, we realized an opportunity to spread the awareness of relevant messages using their existing skeletons. Universal street signs are posted throughout the United States. Augmented reality will allow us to create hundreds of millions of micro-billboards, each spreading messages of change across the nation. 

The idea will be developed under the name “Street Signs of Change” as an AVONNI Global creative initiative. We will begin in June 2020 with the intention to provide support in the fight for racial equality. Black members of our communities should not have to live in fear of the police, the government, or their neighbors. We recognize that everyone deserves but is not provided the same opportunities and want to actively be a part of the solution. 

Our first piece reimagines the omnipresent red ‘STOP’ sign. When viewed through an augmented reality lens, the sign will transform in appearance and message. The primary color will shift from red to black and the text will read ‘STOP KILLING US’ in the traditional Highway Gothic font. Simultaneously, red and blue lights will flash on the sign illuminating the raised text and message. Additional messages and signs will continue to be developed and released in support of the protests and future movements. 

The responsibility to create a better world must be held by everyone. The choices we make in the present can liberate the future from the past. 

To innovate, you must deconstruct and rethink. 

Sample Stop Sign For Viewing

Leaders of The New Creative Democracy

AVONNI was founded with the intention to champion artists. This website stands as a platform dedicated to broadcasting and highlighting the artists, movements, and technological advances that we believe will shape the new creative democracy.

FIGHTING HABITUATION

Technology has changed how people create - a new artistic renaissance. With the internet, artists can be self-taught and distribute their own work, a rebellion against bureaucracy and gatekeepers. The AVONNI platform aims to speak on behalf of the young artists of this movement, highlighting creative minds and their processes. We believe these artists have been overlooked by today’s industry-dominated content-cycles.

We take inspiration in the power of art to bring together different streams of thought and transform them into new works. AVONNI advocates for the modernization and cultural rejuvenation of the creative industry, a rejection of the past and a celebration of speed, machinery, disruption, and youth.

Collectively, we must all fight the traditions that rob us of new perspectives and opportunities to create better work and better connections.

ARTISTIC FREEDOM

Our platform intends to free artists from detracting analysis and to promote the practice of art as self-knowledge and enhancement. Artists create in their own individual realms, each built of their own life experiences, and each with the tools available to them.

New ideas are difficult to identify and assimilate, but we must attempt to evaluate them in a more open way. Artists should not feel discouraged when faced with criticism or self-criticism as a result of prejudice and perfectionism. Artistic practice is a field of unlimited experiment. An open approach allows the artist to follow new paths or go back to their origins at their leisure. Attempting to impose judgement on the artist is the antithesis of art and to the artist, will create a slave of its own production.

Ideas are not final. Art is not final. It is more important to create than to perfect. That idea is reflected in AVONNI’s form - constant iterations and improvement.

AVONNI aims to be a thought-leader for companies and individuals alike. We work to drive the growth of the creative industry as a whole, not just internally.

Mamba Forever - A Kobe Tribute

There are some things that just go together. Peanut butter and jelly. Salt and pepper. French fries and ketchup. Kobe Bryant and the city of Los Angeles.

Everyone knows by now that Kobe, his daughter Gianna and seven others were tragically killed in a helicopter crash earlier this year, turning the world upside down. 

As someone who grew up in L.A. rooting for the Lakers, mesmerizing over the greatness of Kobe and Shaq, it hasn't been easy for me to articulate and process Kobe's death. But I am going to try here.  

In the months since that awful day on January 26, the city of L.A., and people all across the world, have come together to mourn the death of a legend. The tributes, the murals, the donations have all truly been beautiful to see. 

Kobe is not from L.A. He was born in Philadelphia and also spent a large portion of his youth in Italy. But he represents the city I love so much as well as anyone that has ever lived.

The Lakers acquired Kobe on draft night in 1996 when he was just 17 years old, and he proceeded to spend his entire 20-year career with the organization, winning five championships on top of countless other accolades. 

While the winning was great and created some awesome memories in my life, that isn't the reason that Kobe represents L.A. and the people here were so drawn to him. 

Whenever people think of Kobe and his lasting legacy, usually the first thing that comes to mind is his work ethic. Mamba Mentality, as he called it. He wasn't the most naturally gifted or the most athletic player ever, but nobody worked harder to perfect their craft than Kobe. The stories of his work ethic are everywhere, and honestly wouldn't be believable if there weren't so many of them from so many different people.

I can tell you for a fact that I wouldn't have the work ethic and drive I have today if it wasn't for watching Kobe every night, and that even includes his post-playing career. He stepped off the court for good in 2016 and proceeded to win an Oscar and an Emmy in addition to writing books, investing in businesses, countless philanthropic work as well as being the best dad possible to his four beautiful daughters and the best husband to his wife Vanessa. 

It's no secret that L.A. is a transplant city, with people from all across the world coming to pursue their dreams, whether it be film and entertainment, music, fashion, media, business, etc. 

L.A. is such a fast-moving city that if you are not working hard and doing everything you can to make your dreams a reality, you simply won't make it. And that is why the city resonated with Kobe Bryant so much.

He represented and embodied the city in every way possible, which is also why his death has been so difficult to process. His Mamba Mentality is in all of us. He was our superhero. 

Kobe taught us that pain is temporary, but legacy is forever. And that is why that even though he is gone at the young age of 41, he will live on forever in all of us. 

Not a day has gone by since Kobe's death that I haven't thought about him in some way, whether it be shooting a ball of paper into a trash can and yelling "Kobe!", going to the gym when I didn't feel like it, or putting in those extra hours working on the weekends when many others are out having fun. Kobe has changed my life for the better, and I'm absolutely positive that millions of others can say the same. And for that, I sincerely thank him.

Mamba Forever. 

Written by Daniel Starkand, Senior Writer/Editor for LakersNation