ʻKiʻi Ā Loaʻa: Illuminating and Interrogating Hawaiʻi’s Monuments
An augmented reality experience
I ka wa ma mua ka wa ma hope, “the future is in the past.”
Hawaiian Proverb
Created by Moses Goods, Inamona Theatre Company and the HTY Ensemble
The Project
is the Hawaiian led creation of public, augmented reality experiences placed around statues of significance, examining, and illuminating existing narratives attached to these contemporary historical markers. The project is led by Kanaka Maoli Storyteller, Moses Goods and will be produced by Honolulu Theatre for Youth in collaboration with Capitol Modern: Hawaii State Art Museum with funding from Hawaii State Foundation of Culture and the Arts and Hawaii Tourism Authority.
How Does it Work?
Part one and two of this project will be activated by a personal cell phone or mobile devices audience members bring to either the Queen Liliʻuokalani Statue or the King Kamehameha I Statue in downtown Honolulu. A QR code close to the statue will activate a 5-10 minute augmented reality experience exploring each statue. Part three is located at Capitol Modern: The Hawaii State Art Museum and includes various AR experiences accessed with ipads provided by the Museum..
What is the timeline?
Part 1 will be tested in February 2024 and accessible to the general public by April 2024.
Part 2 is scheduled to open to the public no later than May 2024.
Part 3 will be available in June in conjunction with the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture.
Once open, all three experiences will remain accessible to the public on an ongoing basis.
Part One: Queen Liliʻuokalani Statue
What is your relationship to the Queen? This 20 minute experience introduces audience members to 4 different individuals, a visitor to the islands, a hula dancer, a protester and a politician all with a distinctly different relationship to Queen Liliʻuokalani and the statue itself. The piece ultimately asks each audience member to consider their own relationship to the Queen and her legancy.
Flowers fall from the sky, sugar cane grows before your eyes, images of the Queen dance around the viewer and the stories of the four virtual characters unfold in any order at this first stop on our augmented reality journey.
Part Two: King Kamehameha I Statue
The team is rapidly brainstorming and building ideas around the second experience on this journey. More details are coming soon!!!
Part Three: Imi A Loaa at Capitol Modern
The third stop in this journey will actually be a re-mount and reconception of our earlier work IMI A LOAA. We plan on bringing back the four magical portals that cross time and space, a janitor with a trash can that launches images of a time long gone and of course the popular scavenger hunt in the sculpture garden where participants make and place their own digital sculputre. We cannot wait to have you join us!!!
Unlike the previous two experiences, this one is all housed on ipads that are available at Capital Modern. Because of this audiences will be limited to 10 participants at once.
Partners
We have been so fortunate to work with a variety of partners and funders on the creation of content for this project. From volunteer developers to government agencies to student testers we are excited that this work has expanded our community.
Funders Include:
Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. Additional funding for the original project was provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, Native Arts and Culture Foundation, Kamehameha Schools and the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority through the Kūkulu Ola Program, administered by the Hawai‘i Community Foundation.
Program
Theatrical Team
We have been blessed with an amazing theatrical team who have been guiding the development of the piece.
Core Devising Team: Moses Goods, Lokomaika’i Lipscomb, Ryan I. Kahaʻiʻōlelo Sueoka, Kala Muller, Alysia Kepaʻa
This list is growing and there continues to be tremendous support from the HTY staff and ensemble as well as others! Mahalo to all!
Designers/Programmers
Lead Designer
Solomon Enos
Lead Animator
Chesley Cannon
Composer/Sound Designer
T.J. Keanu Tario
Unity Designers/Programmers
Daniel Schatzeder
Andrew Towl
Kari Noe
Other Designers/Programmers
Shawn Taras
Richard Kanno
Additional design, filming, animation and a mountain of work came from inside and outside HTY and we are deeply grateful for each of these contributions.
Collaborators
This project would not have been possible without the contributions of many, many collaborators who gave generous advice, guidance and leadership. A few to note are…
Capitol Modern for opening their beautiful venue and leaping onboard as a partner.
The massive group of collaborators who met in preparation for this project, especially those who participated in the first and second “hackathons” which paved the way for our development of Imi A Loaa.
The many cultural advisors who gave guidance and learning both directly to this project and before.
The partners (please see above) who gave so generously to allow us to take the risk, learn and experiment. Mahalo!
Support this work
This work requires new technology, computer programmers and most especially time to explore and discover what is possible when we combine traditional culture and new technologies. If you would like to support this work please contact HTY’s Managing Director, Becky Dunning at manager@htyweb.org.