Augmented Reality coming to the Riverland this Fringe

Writing the River Rising is an artistic response to rising waters in the Riverland that affected so many South Australians in 2022/23 and continues to impact them to this day.

In November 2022 and February 2023, the River Murray flooded as a result of heavy rain and flood events interstate. It was the largest rain event since 1956 and the third highest flood ever recorded in South Australia. An unprecedented number of homes, shacks, businesses and infrastructure were affected by this event.

Writing the River Rising is an interactive digital writing project by Riverland and Mount Gambier artist Alysha Herrmann. Each day over the course of 31 days, local audiences in the Riverland can visit any one of five project locations to reveal a new poem. Using their personal mobile device, people will engage with an augmented reality experience that will allow them to view and contribute to the work.

Over the course of the month, the poems and people’s responses will slowly create a unique web-based artwork that can be viewed from anywhere in the world. When the daily poems reach their end, the website text will slowly disintegrate to leave behind one final poem inspired by audience contributions and community response to Writing the River Rising.

Alysha will also be presenting an artist talk and reading from Writing the River Rising for Adelaide audiences as part of this year’s Adelaide Festival special event Floods of Fire: Our Voices, Our Dreams on Saturday March 16. Floods of Fire: Our Voices, Our Dreams projects a collective voice, borne from a multiplicity of community responses to one of the most significant challenges we face today: climate change.

Artist Alysha Herrmann said: “Writing the River Rising is a solo experience that contributes to a community experience. We are creating it together. It is a meditation on grief, on change, on community, on becoming ourselves, and is my personal response to the recent Riverland flooding event and my own (very) personal history of living and loving the Riverland.”Writing the River Rising will be active at these five riverside locations from February 15 to March 16, 2024.

Renmark – Ral Ral Ave, near the Renmark Town Fountain
Loxton – Apex Park, Scenic Drive near the Historical Village
Berri – Marina Drive, east of the Marina along the track
Barmera – Dean Drive, near the jetty
Waikerie – Leonard Norman Drive, Waikerie Riverfront  

The cumulative web-based artwork of Writing the River Rising will be viewable online from February 15 to March 25 2024 before it fades and recedes, just as the flood waters did.