The bux app leverages the possibilities of digitisation to create a connection between fiction and reality. The literature of a city is georeferenced - site-specific passages are located on the map. In this way, the cultural and symbolic capital of a place on a city map is made visible.

Via augmented reality users can individually enter into the invisible stories of a city, or the authors personally take them by hand: on different routes they lead to domains and scenes of their works. They talk about spatial references, read text passages or pose with their readers in virtual space. By working with the authors, the application creates an unconventional relationship between author and reader. The latter should not remain passive consumers, but can participate actively via user-generated content - for example in the form of a literary flash mob.

The development and implementation of the bux app is supported by the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI). In addition, the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Zurich Tourism and Interaction Designers from the company Dreipol GmbH are involved in the implementation. Representatives of publishing houses complement the cross-industry collaboration. The theoretical foundation of the practical project lies in various research projects that are realised at the institute in parallel.

Starting next Autumn, the bux app opens the Swiss literary metropolis of Zurich as its first city. Thematic walks lead to the invisible stories of the Limmat City. They lead the way to the origins of Dadaism, show Thomas Meyer’s Wiedikon or Anne Cuneo’s declaration of love for her adopted home.