Tap into three mystery stations. Watch the commercials. Collect your AI passport stamps. Then find out what's actually real — starting with our neighbors.
A participatory installation using generative AI, NFC passports, and a live gallery screen. No app download. Bring your phone.
A Media Lab Midwest photographer-actor greets you at the entry station — passport control reimagined as a party. They take your portrait, just like a real passport photo.
Tap the NFC tag. Your photo loads into a secure digital passport on your own phone. Your journey begins.
At each station, tap the card — you won't know which country it is until it happens. A real corporate commercial plays while PrismaLive composites you into the scene. When it ends, your stamp arrives.
No flags to choose from. The system decides which of nine countries you land in — the same way an algorithm once decided what "the world" looked like on your screen, without ever asking you.
Every stamp is yours to keep — a beautiful AI-generated souvenir of the world tour you were sold.
Every AI transformation displays in real time on a large central screen — a constantly updating gallery of Grand Rapids residents placed inside the world.
Visible from beyond the installation walls, the screen draws in new visitors through the spectacle of others being transformed. The piece recruits itself.
Powered by PrismaLive · Aaron Sundman
You just toured the globe — inside a cherry blossom festival, a Bollywood dance, at the Eiffel Tower at night. Without ever leaving an art gallery in Grand Rapids!
Now we invite you to be a LOCAL CITIZEN.
See the Local Passport ↓See the nine businesses below — all owned and operated by real Grand Rapidians, all within walking distance of KCAD.
Visit these locations, get a stamp, say hello to your neighbors. They're investing in your community — not in corporate ads that sell you things you don't really need.
Ritsu Katsumata and Aaron Sundman form a Grand Rapids-based creative technology collaborative whose work sits at the intersection of generative AI, human experience design, and civic engagement.
Japanese-American sound artist and experience designer. Carnegie Hall to CBGB's — scoring silent films, building immersive installations, designing human-centered digital experiences across Dentsu, Wieden+Kennedy, Cornell University, and Ford Motor Company.
Technology evangelist with 30 years in enterprise digital innovation. RFID Business Development Leader at CCL eAgile. Creator of the PrismaLive AI platform.