[Read more about the augmented[archive] app here]

The augmented[archive] app was launched in November 2017 with its first public project: the Cairo edition, a video walk through Downtown Cairo in English and Arabic.

The project consists of a few dozen videos spread all over the inner city of the Egyptian capital, documenting events of recent history at the site of their recording, in addition to a series of short related interviews and performative interactions. The videos are partly taken from the video archive 858 of Mosireen, a group of media activists that has produced and compiled one of the largest video archives related to the political and urban changes in Cairo from 2011-2013.

These video documents are accompanied by newly produced material — interviews and performances produced by the artist in collaboration with a variety of thinkers and artists — contextualizing the archival material and taking users on a multi-layered tour through actual and potential layers of the urban fabric.

While the app’s menu offers a digital map marking all locations of video fragments produced as parts of this project, the user has to physically visit those sites in order to access the material. Users’ own contributions can be added at any point, uploaded and included into the media architecture.

The project features interviews with Reem Maged, Salma Said, Omar Nagati, May Al-Ibrashy, Youssef Rakha, Salma Shamel, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Maha Maamoun, Lina Attalah, Huda Lutfi, Amgad El Said Nagib, Brad Butler, William Wells, Dalia Abdelhamid, Aly Sobhi, Sondos Shabayek, Lara Baladi, Samir El Kordi, among others.

It also features contributions by full-time students of Karima Mansour’s Cairo Contemporary Dance Center, part of a Workshop with Salma Abdel Salam: