In 2023, FAI and Mural Arts, in collaboration with SEPTA, presented Philly Daydreams: Stories In Transit by Anula Shetty, Public Works inaugural artist-in-residence. The augmented reality public art project was exhibited throughout Philadelphia’s transit system and installed for a limited time at City Hall Station’s Oculus, a section of the transit system normally closed to the public. check out coverage on the project from WHYY and ABC channel 6 to learn more.
Experience the project by clicking on the videos below!
“Ken” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Harry” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Ursula” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Karen” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Emilio” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Donte” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Benita” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Jazz” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Tracy” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Conrad” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Shaily” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Lovey” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Catzie” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
“Iris” for Philly Daydreams: Stories in Transit, courtesy of Anula Shetty.
Philly Daydreams explores public transportation as a service that unites people through a shared experience of daydreaming in transit.
Shetty created a series of 14 short documentary film portraits of SEPTA employees and riders, which are accessible through SEPTA’s transit system via digital QR codes posted on buses, trains, and trolleys. Anula filmed interviews with SEPTA riders and bus and trolley operators, as well as with poets like Ursula Rucker, community organizers like Iris Brown, activists, and other cultural leaders, including Street Dept’s Conrad Benner around the theme of “daydreaming in transit. The interviews are meant to encourage connections following the isolating effects of COVID-19 and to celebrate the collective nature of public transportation.
For these interviews, Shetty created a series of photographs around themes of commuting and daydreaming in Philadelphia transit. The QR-triggered photography featuring portraits of riders and transit-related landscapes lines the areas above the windows in many of Philadelphia’s trains, buses, and trolleys, serving as the launchpad for Philly Daydreams’s augmented reality.
In addition, the project includes Short Story Kiosk Dispensers that will be located throughout the city, providing an opportunity for people to submit and share their own daydream.
Check out the press release to learn more about the project.
About
Public Works is a residency program that places artists in Philadelphia government agencies or organizations to develop artwork that forges new connections between the agency’s work and the communities they serve.
Created in partnership with Mural Arts, Public Works is driven by the conviction that public art has the power to inspire real, positive public change and foster public spaces that are beneficial to all. It seeks to deepen the exchanges between community and institution, provide meaningful opportunities for artists, and give a voice to underrepresented constituents.
Artist
For the program’s inaugural year, Public Works selected Philadelphia artist Anula Shetty, who worked with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) to develop a project designed to inspire positive human connection through shared transit experiences.
Anula Shetty is an award-winning filmmaker and new media artist. She is the founder of Fire Work Media, a production company that uses AR/VR and mobile apps to tell stories about the environment and marginalized communities. She is a 2020 CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) Fellow and a recipient of a Pew Fellowship. She was previously awarded three Media Arts Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and was nominated for a USA Artist Fellowship. She received a Project Involve Fellowship, two Independence Foundation Fellowships, and a Leeway Foundation Transformation Award for her art and social change work.
Read more about the residency program here.
Partners
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is one of the largest transit systems in the United States, serving five counties in the Greater Philadelphia area and connecting to transit systems in Delaware and New Jersey. Its services include regional rail, buses, trolleys, subway and a high-speed line to western suburbs. SEPTA, created by the Pennsylvania legislature in 1963, began operations in 1964. Many of its services and facilities date back further — as far as the early 20th century — and became part of SEPTA through other transportation companies and organizations absorbed during the authority’s first decades.
Mural Arts Philadelphia is the nation’s largest public art program, dedicated to the belief that art ignites change. For over 35 years, Mural Arts has united artists and communities through a collaborative and equitable process, creating over 4,000 artworks that have transformed public spaces and individual lives. Mural Arts aims to empower people, stimulate dialogue, and build bridges to mutual understanding through projects that attract artists from Philadelphia and around the world and programs that focus on youth education, restorative justice, mental health and wellness, and public art and its preservation.
