Augmented reality and virtual reality bring to fruition objects that do not materially exist. (Wikipedia, 2010)We could assume this of our own temporal realities in that the only things that exist are those that illicit some kind of physical or psychological response from us (Murphie, 2011) They exist because we create them through perception. Therefor all things in the world are based upon multiple virtual realities and in fact upon as many virtual realities as there are minds to construct them. However there are other ways of thinking of the virtual including the collapsing of time-space through technologies of broadcast, biometric data driven animation and spatially aware technologies such as GPS and smart phones all of which alter our perception of the temporal reality. A mountain becomes a dot on a map or a Krispy Kreme has a virtual donut hovering over it when viewed through an application such as Layar. International colleagues are framed by the borders of a screen and the aperture of the lens. All of these are “virtually” lived experiences, but are not quite in the realm of true reality, if there is such a thing.
So where does this leave us in a world of haptic screens and virtualising machines? Is the new reality fast becoming one that is entirely virtual? Chris Grayson seems to think so. The proliferation of augmented reality technologies into our most loved devices is only the beginning according to Grayson who sees heads up displays and 3D overlays becoming major elements of our ongoing cyborg transformation (Grayson, 2009). Grayson points out that the majority of attempts made at an augmented reality experience have been from a capitalist perspective and thus sales focused. I can certainly see a varied application in search and rescue operations where rescue teams unable to penetrate disaster affected areas could deliver visual based evacuation information to victims on the ground through an easily modified data set distributed to AR capable devices.
But as Andrew Murphie points out in 'The World as Clock: The Network Society and Experimental Ecologies' these technologies do not occur within a vacuum. They are born of the intersections between various media ecologies and social affordance. (Murphie, 2004) The CGI donut is born of advertising, the action of the user from the concept of the tourist and the technology that supports AR is already made of hundreds if not more media ecologies and the freedom to capture an image is a highly political construct. All of these individual elements, which exist as far more than their whole, operate at different frequencies which Murphie argues are able to synchronise or “transduce” into a particular ecology, (Murphie, 2004:120) which deliver the social, cultural, geographical, technological, physical and psychological phenomenon of virtual or augmented realities which are massively reshaping our experience of the world around us.
Bibliography:
Anon. (n.d.) ‘Virtual Reality’, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
Grayson, Chris (2009) ‘Augmented Reality Overview’, GigantiCo http:// gigantico.squarespace.com/336554365346/2009/6/23/augmented-reality- overview.html
Murphie, Andrew (2004) ‘The World’s Clock: The Network Society and Experimental ecologies’, Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 11, Spring
Murphie, Andrew (2011) 'Media Ecologies' lecture notes distributed in Advanced Media Theories at The University of New South Wales, Kensington Campus, 28 March 2011
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