Maria Baccante
Art Direction:
Abby Guido
Augmented Reality, Typography,
Exhibition
The story of Maria Baccante, an Italian resistance fighter in Rome during World War II. I created an Augmented Reality museum exhibit that showcases the story of her life and sets the scene about the roles women had during her time. The exhibition features typography sourced from Rome, and is filmed in the Museum of the Liberation of Rome.
A Thousand Marias: I was first drawn to Maria’s story because of her name: it’s the Italian version of mine, which hit home. Maria Baccante was a part of the “Bandiera Rossa.” She had the task of carrying weapons, hiding escaped prisoners, maintaining links with the partisans of Monte Borragine and throwing four-pointed nails. The German Sicherheitspolizei was after her, and in order to find her, they tried a futile approach. The police attempted to round up all the women in her quarter named Maria, but as it was such a common name, they were unsuccessful. After the war, she was hired by a chemical manufacturing company and remained at the forefront of worker’s rights.
TYPOGRAPHY
In creating the typography and interactive aspect I wanted to focus on the concept of being hidden in plain sight-how Maria was able to hide her identity because there were so many other Marias living in her quarter. I used that concept to drive my typography in creating floating Maria text with arrows directing the viewer in different areas.
ICONS
VIDEO WALKTHROUGH