American Gold: A Ship of Human Bondage - Series

American Gold is a musically interactive Augmented Reality sculpture installation mini-series that reimagines the brutal legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. Rooted in historical research and artistic intervention, each Augmented Reality installation portrays enslaved Africans as figures made of gold, a haunting symbol of their commodification and the wealth extracted from their suffering. Set aboard a ghostly slave ship rendered in augmented reality, the installation invites viewers to stand beneath a nearly invisible vessel suspended overhead. From this vantage point, they experience the oppressive density of bodies crammed into the ship’s underbelly—offering a visceral perspective on the inhuman conditions endured during the Middle Passage. “American shipowners, merchants, seamen and corrupt officials, based largely in New York City, collaborated with foreign allies to continue shipping captive Africans via the Middle Passage all the way into the 1860s.”- John Harris.  American Gold confronts this dark undercurrent in American history, exposing how profit and power drove the prolonged exploitation of African lives. Part of the larger Slavery Trails series, American Gold merges history, sound, and augmented reality to memorialize the enslaved and to challenge viewers to reflect on the economic systems built on human bondage. Slavery Trails is a musically interactive site-specific augmented reality installation series based on slave ships and enslaved people, placed on historical sites throughout the United States. Slavery Trails is an effort by artist Marcus Brown to create a decentralized memorial to slavery in the United States.

[1] John Harris, “The Atlantic Slave Trade Continued Illegally in America until the Civil War,” HISTORY, January 22, 2024, https://www.history.com/news/us-illegal-slave-trade-civil-war.