Fiction Meets Tech

  Live mediation is the cornerstone of 'reality' in Augmented Reality (AR), and as AR technology advances, it increasingly becomes an integral part of our everyday reality. This dynamic plays a critical role in shaping our interactions and experiences with the networked digital world around us. The essence of AR lies in its ability to overlay our direct sensory experiences with digitally augmented elements, creating a composite view that blurs the lines between what's real and what's computer-generated. This integration often leads to a suppression of raw reality, as the augmented components modify or enhance our perception of the world. In AR, our interaction with reality is mediated through devices that pre-process and reinterpret our surroundings before we even perceive them. These devices—equipped with cameras and sensors—scan our environment, interpret the data in real-time, and augment our visual field with virtual objects or information layers. This process invol...

The metaphors of windows, mirrors, and frames have historically shaped Western art, setting boundaries that can restrict innovative, immersive artistic expressions. These metaphors suggest that art is something to be viewed from a distance, like looking through a window, which positions the viewer outside the artistic experience, merely observing the intangible from afar. This idea is reinforced by the physical attributes of traditional display technologies. Rectangular screens, prevalent in everything from cinema to smartphones, align well with the human binocular field of vision, which is approximately 155° by 120°. Thomas Edison standardized this alignment in 1892 with the 4:3 NTSC aspect ratio, shaping the early visual formats of cinema and television, and establishing a viewing experience that mimics looking through a window. The practicality of rectangular screens further cements this metaphor. Their shape efficiently organizes visual data into rows and columns, maximizing the us...