Reading Augmented Spaces and the Dimensions that Define Them

Most new media work establishes interactivity within a curated installation space: a gallery, a festival, or an area whose purpose is to exhibit art. However, recent experiments in new media narratives have made use of the capabilities of smartphones and tablets to present experiences that are aware of the user’s position in space and
even their current behavior or object of attention.

Specifically,augmented reality works set themselves apart by re-contextualizing environments and objects encountered in everyday life, removing the fourth wall and blurring or eliminating an interactive experience's boundaries. This differs markedly from the purism of the imagination tapped by literature, and often even favors more realistic integration, in contrast to stylistic depictions and abstractions used in monitor-based works. Augmented reality’s strength and interest lies in how it embeds a story in an environment, or how it can be used to awaken new awareness of a viewer to their surroundings. This bridges the world of the reader with the diegesis of the narrative, resulting in works that react to the immediacy of the experienced space.

The major draw to augmented reality in industry has been to use this immediacy to push a product or service, and embed it within the viewer's world. As with any new platform for generating content, its commercial appropriations and implementations threaten to control the discourse of its use. It is important therefore to establish an artistic framework that conveys and critiques the narrative affordances AR makes possible.

Augmented reality is a relatively nascent medium, especially when set alongside other works of electronic literature. Our talk will start with a brief illustration that will allow audience members with smartphones to collaboratively experience an augmented reality work.

(Source: Author's abstract, 2012 ELO Conference site)