Questioning Augmented Space

7/29/2019 Questioning Augmented Space

1/31

Alexander Xan Manning _ p06268878

14thJune 2011


2/31

This essay has been included on my online portfolio as a sample of my

academic written work. Whilst this essay scored a distinction level mark, I

highly recommend that this work is neither referenced, nor paraphrased as it

has not been published through the university.

Please feel free to contact me for more information.
http://xan-manning.co.uk/


3/31

One of the buzz words currently being thrown about in the world of

technology is Augmented Reality (commonly abbreviated as AR). With the

increasing number of smartphones, wearable computers, wireless information

services and ubiquitous computing the idea of an electronically augmented

space has often been discussed. Early applications of augmented reality can be

seen in museums and outdoor exhibitions1,tourism, advertising and

entertainment. In this essay I set out to discover what is meant by augmented

reality, to question its usefulness and to think about alternate denitions

through the work of Slavoj iek. As we begin to dene augmented reality we

will see an evolution from virtual reality, an abstraction in which we are

disembodied, towards an immersive environment of rich, dynamic

information interwoven within the setting it appears to inhabit. The essay will

focus on rst setting out the technological background of augmented reality,

how it is technologically driven, and will then seek to look a bit deeper at a

more experiential level using phenomenology as a mode of inquiry.

Let us begin by posing the simplest question in order to allow us to dig deeper.

What is Augmented Reality? This can be answered by considering the

denition given by those organisations investigating it. The denition I am

going to use to initiate discussion is the one given on the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology web page for wearable computing. The main reason

for this is that it gives a clear, concise description of what is attempting to be

achieved in Augmented Reality but also opens up a multitude of questions.

Augmented reality refers to the combination [o] the real and the virtual

to assist the user in his environment.2(See gure 1)

1 Museum without Walls Audio trail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania makes use of mobile smart phones and Quick

Response (QR) codes to structure a walk through the city making 35 stops at 51 sculptures.

http://museumwithoutwallsaudio.org/

2 MIThrill (1999) MIT Wearable Computing Webpage [WWW] MIT Available from:http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/augmented-reality.html [Accessed: 10/03/2011].


4/31

[Fig. 1.] A typical impression of Augmented Reality being used as a tool for drawing. This image is a

recreation of the image presented on the MIT wearable computing web page and implies an interface

involving a wearable Head-up display (HUD) and a system that tracks nger (or marker) movements.

We can deduce a number of interesting points from the above statement.

Apart from the obvious questions about what is real and what is virtual, the

words environment, user and assist bring curious questions to the

foreground. Environment can seem a vague term when it is thrown around so

much in today's discussion. In the context of this statement it is implied that

the environment is something that isused. We can also deduce that it is

something that we need assistance using. What exactly is the usable

environment? The environment in this statement doesn't infer dwelling or

inhabitation but a dierent level of participation. In selectively placing the

pronoun his into the statement, the environment being referred to is a

personal one, and is likely referring to the graspable world within the user's

horizon. What is it in our environment that we need assistance in using?

Space? Situation? Things? The website that the quote belongs to implies things


5/31

in an image (see gure 2). Here augmented reality being used to repair

equipment.

[Fig. 2.] A printer with a digital overlay giving step-by-step instruction on repairs and maintenance.

Image Source:http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/augmented-reality.html [Accessed: 31/05/2011]

Thehelpwe get in using our environment is given by combining the real

with the virtual reality. The standard denition of virtual reality assumes

that there is a real reality to abstract from, i.e. there is something real from

which we can abstract. In the case of augmented reality there is also an

assumption that this virtual abstraction has something real to be layered

upon.

Lev Manovich, in his essay The Poetics of Augmented Space, considers

augmented reality specically in architectural terms. To Manovich, the


6/31

environment in use is architectural, but he then asks whether architecture, as

form, becomes irrelevant. Does it support, or is it subsumed by, information

ows?

Does the [architectural] form become irrelevant, being reduced to

functional and ultimately invisible support for information ows? Or do

we end up with a new experience in which the spatial and information

layers are equally important? In this case, do these layers add up to a single

phenomenological gestalt or are they processed as separate layers?

(MANOVICH, 2005)

The emphasis on an architectural environment requires further investigation

into the way virtual and physical spatiality work together in Augmented

Reality, to avoid a discontinuity in our experience. The role of architecture in

augmented reality becomes an interesting line of enquiry; to what extent do

architects design a building to support augmented reality and where do they

draw the line in depending on the virtual layer lling the gaps where

ornamentation3once belonged? William J. Mitchell predicts that:

It will become meaningless to ask where the smart electronics end and

dumb construction begins [] Architects will increasingly confront

practical choices between providing for bodily experience and relying on

telepresence. (MITCHELL, 1995. pp. 171-172)

3 Ornamentation is the term used by Lev Manovich in The Poetics of Augmented Space.


7/31

For both Manovich and the researchers at MIT, the environment they refer to

is the potentially graspable reality. Another way of looking at this reality is as

phenomenal reality - the given world that we experience mediated through

our senses. This reality is something that can be potentially abstracted and

made virtual.

Virtual reality is not a new concept, as is evident from the modern

understanding of virtual reality it is an abstraction and representation of an

assumed reality. Virtual Reality frequently operates as a tool to provide

accurate representation, as is made clear with the clich use of the term What

you see is what you get (WYSIWYG). Predominantly virtual reality is an

abstraction of vision, something that can be seen historically in the

geometricisation of vision in Renaissance perspective and Euclidean space.

Perspective served as an attempt to understand space, it inuenced a way of

thinking about space and helped to inform the way Renaissance cities were

designed (VESELY, 2004. pp. 112). The abstraction of vision was later evident in

other optical devices and optical representations such as the camera obscura.

The camera obscura was seen as a more sophisticated representation of vision

and aided in our understanding of how vision actually works. Jonathan Crary

quotes this passage fromEncyclopdie ou dictionnaire des sciences, des arts et

des mtiers, vol 3:

[The camera obscura] throws great light on the nature of vision; it

provides a very diverting spectacle, in that it presents images perfectly

resembling their objects; it represents the colours and the movements of

object better than any sort of representation is able to do. (CRARY, 1990.

pp. 33)


8/31

The lengths to which people experimented with the camera obscura went as

far as to place the lens and vitreous humour of the eye of a large animal or

dead person in the hole that lets in light. The results of which allowed us to

observe the way that light is distorted as it passes through the eye, thuslearning about the optics of the eye (CRARY, 1990. pp. 47).

The camera obscura began to open up questions on how we accurately

represent the world we live in. In the above quote we can see that not just

perfect resemblance was important, but accuracy of colour and movement was

part of the frustration felt in creating these representations. In painting and in

photography, the problem of capturing movement into one static image

became infuriating with numerous experimentations, varying in success. The

camera obscura itself was unable to capture such movement, merely reproduce

in real-time. Stephen Kern informs us of the techniques of capturing moving

objects and the diculties faced with more modern tools such as the

photographic camera. Kern identies one photographer's response to

cinematography. In 1913, the futurist photography of Anton Bragaglia

employed the photo-dynamism method. Photo-dynamism involved keeping

the aperture open for an extended period of time, exposing the lm to the

moving light. To him the result was a more accurate representation that

captured the intermediate ux of movements that were missed in

cinematography which broke time and motion into discreet frames. The

results of Bragaglia's photo-dynamism were interesting in that there is indeed

a sense of movement (See Figure 3.)(KERN, 1983. pp. 21).


9/31

[Fig. 3.] The Cellist by Bragaglia. The photographer became so driven by the desire to represent

movement that he produced images such as this one. Source: History of Modern Art, H. H. ARNASON.

Cinematography was generally seen as the more sophisticated art form, able to

better capture motion. Abstracted vision is no longer static but recorded and

replayed with a more accurate representation of time and movement. The

success of this medium relies on our ability to read the replayed representation

of frames as motion picture and not as a series of individual, static frames. As

the medium of cinematography grew in popularity, sound was recorded and

played along-side the video, representing the noises surrounding the scenebeing visually recorded. As this happened audio-visual abstraction became

unied into one standard medium of representation.

Audio-visual abstraction became the primary basis for abstraction in virtual

representations. Based on the evolution from Euclidean space and perspective,

to the camera obscura, the photographic camera and cinematography there is

an obvious agenda to recreate the assumed real as we perceive it into a virtual

audio-visual representation. Computer mediated virtual reality starts to

abstract the sense of touch in the same way, as will be discussed later.


10/31

Contemporary use of the term virtual reality has no straight forward

denition. There are a multitude of denitions, some that contiguously lead

on from another denition and others that violently clash with common

preconceptions. The disagreements can often arise out of attempting to

dierentiate terms such as cyberspace, telepresence and virtual reality

from one another. Under some denitions these terms do not have a dened

boundary and are eectively the same, under others they refer to specic

aspects depending on who said them and when. Michael Heim collates 7

dierent denitions - simulation, interaction, articiality, immersion,

telepresence, full-body immersion, and network communication - of which

there are key ones that allow us to link into other authors and thinkers.

As both Heim and Vesely both initially use the word simulation to assign

their use of virtual reality, it seems a good point of departure. Simulation

within the connes of virtual reality is the presentation of high denition

graphics, and often three-dimensional digital acoustic spaces, within a virtual

environment that portrays a sense of realism. Here we see the aforementioned

abstraction of the audio-visual experiences of phenomenal reality. In order to

achieve this so called realism it is fair to say that the aim of the simulation is to

deceive the senses, in particular the eye. The environment mentioned in the

previous MIT statement is displaced by another, simulated, virtual

environment. In this virtual situation we are disembodied as we transfer our

participation from the real to the virtual. (HEIM, 1993. pp. 110)(VESELY,

2004. pp. 4)

This is where a denition begins to overlap with other denitions that Heim

has drawn upon. Simulation is extended by immersion. Immersive simulation

is often imagined in terms of head mounted displays and gloves, as illustrated

in Vesely's book (pp. 309, see gure 4). The desired result is the user is almost


11/31

completely removed from their physical surroundings and their participation

translated to the virtual reality.

[Fig. 4.] NASA virtual reality simulation interfaced through a wearable headset and gloves. The gloves are

the human interface device (HID) that allow the individual to navigate around the virtual environment

represented in the audio-visual headset by means of a set of programmable gestures.

Source: VESELY, 2004. pp. 309.

To become immersed in this way is to become focused, and in this focus we

nd humans can operate within a level of abstracted reality that has proven

benecial for learning. In the case of ight simulators a trainee pilot can begin

to get a sense of ying a plane before they ever take o the ground. When

entering the immersive simulation, the all important sense of danger is not

present, wrong moves can be made without consequence. This can be quite a

dangerous situation in itself; if I play a video game simulation on a racingtrack, I can crash into barriers and other cars and have no care for my virtual

self's well being. In this virtual situation there are no consequences for my

actions and I just re-spawn if I die. When I am behind the wheel of my car on

the motorway I cannot think like this, heaven forbid that I ever lose the ability

to make sense of what is real and what is virtual. The situation of the trainee


12/31

pilot also demonstrates immersive simulations providing a safer condition for

which people can inhabit dangerous spaces with no direct risk to their physical

health. Another example of this is a bomb disposal unit utilising a robot in

place of themselves. What becomes apparent, and somewhat frightening, is the

division of our lives denoted by the colloquial abbreviation IRL (In Real Life).When immersed in the virtual reality there is a tendency to delegate ones

presence into Real Life, where I dwell, and Virtual Life where I am known

by many aliases - an electronic neur on the network as William J. Mitchell

introduces himself. (MITCHELL, 1995. pp. 7)

From this point of view we are now merging with telepresence and network

communication as a denition for virtual reality. William J. Mitchell explores

the denitions of telepresence and network communications as an electronic

extension to our eshy reach. He uses the term cyborg (cybernetic organism)

where our body becomes augmented (enhanced) by our electronic

paraphernalia. Mitchell discusses the situations that already exist:

There are endless reasons for robotically extending your reach. If you area skilled surgeon, you might want to make your capabilities more widely

available through the use of remote manipulation techniques, or you

might just want to stay well away from dangerous places like battleelds or

the South Side of Chicago.

If you are a vulcanologist, you might not want to climb down into an

active crater to take a look (MITCHELL, 1995. pp. 38)

On the smaller scale, in a situation with low risk, telepresence has made its

way into our lives through instant messaging and with greater ecacy through

video conferencing software. The boundaries of the building in which I sit, the

city in which I live are dissolved and I can interact with another human being


13/31

on the other side of the world without a passport and lengthy travel. Time, the

human measure of distance, has less impact on the interaction between one

another. I can be anywhere in the world, mediated through a camera,

microphone and a screen and meet with my friend; for the purpose of

discussion it is a semi-convincing solution. What becomes of this is a sense ofnearing through the apparent immediacy and the inability to get a sense of

distance through time.

The nal denition I wish to bring to the discussion is the one most familiar to

all of us, the Interaction denition that Heim oers us. In this denition we

consider the graphical user interface (GUI) to the everyday Operating System

(OS). Within this denition the point is put across that the GUI is a way of

interacting with virtual reality that is not meant to be fooling the senses, but is

a form of extension and a tool. Within the GUI we often see virtual

representations in the form of metaphors and paradigms often borrowing

from architectural forms. The Desktop is like the desk you work upon. The

window becomes a two-dimensional frame, a compartmentalised vista into

cyberspace. Heim writes this of the desktop and the trash can:

Some people consider virtual reality any electronic representation with

which they can interact. Cleaning up our computer desktop, we see a

graphic of a trash can[] The desk is not a real desk, but we treat it as

though it were, virtually, a desk. The trash can is an icon for a deletion

program, but we use it as a virtual trash can[] The virtual trash can does

not have to fool the eye in order to be virtual. Illusion is not the issue.

Rather, the issue of how we interact with the trash can as we go about our

work. (HEIM, 1993. pp. 111)


14/31

[Fig. 5.] Typical Desktop Environment. Windows and Trash can typical elements in the interaction with

this form of virtual reality. The Trash Can is circled and has been labeled here as Wastebasket.

This denition brings to light a point of view of the virtual reality, that its

everyday purpose is as an elaborate tool. But is that all Virtual Reality is? We

witness its use for gaming, recreation and eCommerce, where it is sometimes

referred to as a second life. We understand the virtual second life because

we know what we mean by life. Technology in general has permeated our

existence, the virtual reality has an inuential relationship on our lives and the

way we communicate. However, we cannot exist solely in the virtual reality,certain bodily functions and needs cannot be met in cyberspace. Dalibor Vesely

calls this divided representation.


15/31

As Dalibor Vesely identied, the dialectic between what is real and what is

virtual cannot be pinned down by an assumption that we know what is real:

... using the term 'real' becomes problematic when ideologies and

opinions are ercely competing, when even 'virtual reality is just another

reality' and the 'fact that it is computer generated with no physical

existence makes it no less real.' (VESELY, 2004. pp. 12)4

If we cannot dene what is real then where do we perceive the boundary

between the real and the virtual? Imagination a very real part of our

existence can also be thought of as virtual. As sentient, thinking beings we

can anticipate an outcome of a decision before we even act upon it. This very

act can be compared to computer simulation as a method of acting out

without consequence (sometimes called the 'sandbox'). As previously

mentioned, another dicult situation to dene what is real and what is virtual

is in telepresence and the associated feeling of nearness.

Martin Heidegger's way of describing nearness is through things. To Heidegger

a thing is something that gathers the fourfold, that is earth, sky/heavens,

divinities and mortals. A particular example would be the jug inThe Thing

that Heidegger describes as near-by. For Heidegger the jug is an eective

example when it is acting as a vessel and contains water or wine. The moment

in which the act of pouring or a libation is taking place is the key moment

when humans are experiencing earth and sky through the jug made of earth

born materials as well as the gift of drink from the divine. Whilst the jug is

staying the fourfold in a united onefold, the fourfold is something that is

4 VESELY is quoting DREYFUS, H. L. Misrepresenting Human Intelligence, IN: BORN, R. (ed)(1987)ArtificialIntelligence. London: Croom Helm. pp. 4155.


16/31

essentially not available to us when it is not gathered by the thing

(HEIDEGGER, 1950). The bridge serves as a better example, its location in the

landscape creates place, which Heidegger tells us:

The locationadmitsthe fourfold and itinstallsthe fourfold. The two making room in the sense of admitting and in the sense of installing

belong together. (HEIDEGGER, 1951)

That relation to location and to the fourfold as gathered by the bridge allows

for us to become near to the bridge when we think of (or remember) it. The

image in our minds may be referred to as virtual in some denition of the term

virtual reality, but it is still a real bridge within our memory that gathers the

fourfold. (HEIDEGGER, 1951). In an abstract interpretation of the mental

image of the bridge, when talking to someone I know, the network connection

between my video conference software into someone elses is acting to bring

me near to my friend in a distant location. Two people, dened as being in a

location by the virtual bridge (the arc between nodes) through data. The nodes

are locations, and are made so explicitly by the bridge itself, otherwise they are

part of the vast, anonymous cyber landscape. The manifestation of nearness is

possibly related to what Slavoj iek refers to in Lacanian psychoanalysis as the

Imaginary Virtual. In a conversation I am not dealing with the person

directly but I am dealing with the phenomenological image of that person as

mediated through my senses, in which I am only selectively interacting with

the other person (IEK, 2004). The network bridge between us works

because we understand and can complete the situation. Is it that

phenomenological image the one we are remembering in order to become near

in telepresence? We will return to iek in more detail later on.


17/31

Lev Manovich, in his self published article The Poetics of Augmented Space,uses the term AugmentedSpace. Manovich's aim in doing so is to expand upon

the Augmented Reality paradigm and bring similar technologies from other

areas of computing and electronic communication into the denition. We

include Ubiquitous and Context-aware Computing, Wearable Computers,

Human Computer Interfaces, Intelligent Buildings and Wireless Location

Services, all of which have a relation to the subject or their context. If we take

the example of Wireless Location Services we can note the ability to discoverthe users location. If we were to be delivering targeted advertising we have the

potential to deduce the building use and present the user with an advert that

delivers attractive information about a like-service nearby. To Manovich these

technologies attain the same outcome of layering data ows upon physical

space (MANOVICH, 2005). Augmented Space becomes an umbrella

terminology, the emphasis of what is being augmented denoted by the word

space. AugmentedSpaceis ultimately an interchangeable term withAugmentedReality.

Within the extended denition, we already live in a computer-mediated

augmented reality as identied by Manovich. Every day we move through

cellspace, the invisible layers of digital information already penetrate our

towns and our cities and have already come to visibility through screens and

displays. Adverts have become electronic and dynamic, for example, Ford

released a series of AR Posters in 2011 demonstrating a magic mirror eect.

As you stare at the screen reecting the image of yourself captured by video

camera, a virtual model of a car appears to be constructed on your

outstretched hand5.This level of advertising - beyond being a gimmick - is not

5 An example video is available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI3s3oa3yEE


18/31

too far o the surface of the wall becoming dynamic ornament.

Manovich reminds us that historically, ornament has always been present

within our built environment taking forms such as sculptures, fresco paintings

and stained glass. However, the move into the augmented space is replacing

this traditional, static, ornamentation of surface with a dynamic electronic and

personal ornamentation.

If we consider some of the current methods of delivery, we can take the

current day example of smartphones and their interaction with cellspace. Not

only are they a way of receiving personal data in the form of email, but they arealso now able to extract geographically located (geotagged) data from the

electronic ether. Layers of surface built from electronically represented

information can be overlaid onto a physical surface through the magic lens of

the smartphone. Real world markers such as QR Codes and Fiducials (See

gure 6 and 7) allow for precise placement of virtual objects in real world

locations. An issue with the use of QR Codes is one of exclusion. An individual

who is unaware of what it is or what it does cannot interact with it in theintended manner. Fiducials are likely to be more successful in current

examples of their usage, especially in their adoption in architectural practice

where the architect will send the Fiducial to be printed so that the client can

see the three-dimensional model be built upon a sheet of paper6.

6 An example of a virtual 3D visualization of a building placed upon a fiduciary marker.http://vimeo.com/5821492
http://vimeo.com/5821492http://vimeo.com/5821492http://vimeo.com/5821492http://vimeo.com/5821492


19/31

[Fig. 6.] A Quick Response (QR) code, this can be placed anywhere and digital information can be

extracted from it using smartphones and webcams. This QR Code contains the phrase Made you look!.

[Fig. 7.] A duciary marker, this essay page will have a sasquatch appear walking on the paper when you

visithttp://www.livingsasquatch.com/and allow the site to use your webcam.

IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.livingsasquatch.com/

A more radical, or should I say distant, vision of delivering a complete

experience of augmented space is to augment the body. Human enhancement

and the transhumanist movement (denoted by H+ by the transhumanist

magazine h+). The movement endeavours to bring about the human version

2.0 who will be able to transcend biology with the ability to blend and cross
http://www.livingsasquatch.com/http://www.livingsasquatch.com/


20/31

the virtual and the physical realities together as if it were a bodily function.

This predicted vision of things to come seems unlikely but gives an idea of the

level of thought being put into augmented space and how we engage with it. If

we take account of what Vesely deduces from Merleau-Ponty about how we

experience space through topography, orientation and physiognomy, focus ondelivery of Augmented Space by directly stimulating the body allows us to

question the ecacy of human enhancement. Vesely describes in detail the

experience of wearing inverted vision glasses and the diculty we have in

reconciling our visual experience with out other senses, the absolute body still

aware of its proper orientation. In this example the world is visually altered, up

is down and left is right, however the body takes a lot of time to adjust to the

change. Parts of the body that are unseen seem to be unable to adapt to thechange proving that more than vision dictates how we understand space and

our situation. Attempts to manipulate the way we see mechanically and

electronically, whilst leaving the rest of the senses in the body to stay aware of

its actual orientation are in danger of confusing discontinuity (VESELY, 2004.

pp. 48). The only perceivable solution Kurweil can oer is a swarm of small

nanobots that suppress actual sensory input and replace them with

simulated, virtual sensory input (KURZWEIL, 2005. pp. 234-236). Ray

Kurzweil's predictions may never fully be realised but some of the predictions

contained in The 2010 Scenario - the technological capabilities we have

developed by the year 2010 - are already being translated into reality, research

into contact lenses that project onto your retinas is under way (GRAHAM-

ROWE, 2011).

So why are we moving deeper into augmented space? The nature of

augmenting space is not necessarily reductive in the same way that it is within

virtual reality. As discussed, the virtual is laid upon the real and so is


21/31

theoretically adding to it. Augmented reality acts as the continuum between

the real and the virtual and so has a greater possibility for success and can even

be used poetically.

Taking from an example of my own work with the Processing coding language,

we can see that sensors acting as sensory organs collect data and translate it

numerically. The microphone measures the amplitude of acoustic information

and represents it numerically as a oating point value between 1 and -1, 0

denoting silence. The camera measures light and this data is represented in

values of tone and hue, each pixel having an hexadecimal value such as

#E8E9EB (the value given to the colour referred to as whitesmoke, a cyan-ish

grey). On rst glance the script performs a simple operation of reducing the

stimuli of reality to numerical values to process simple equations and to

display the output visually. Going much deeper into the experience of the

script is the visualisation of noise, bringing it literally to visibility. As I sit and

watch myself or the environment that the camera is recording I begin to see

the image darken and lighten in response to sound events, I begin to notice

that the microphone is picking up the smallest tap and the image is always

visible. As I realise this I go quiet and attempt to make sense of the situation, to

pick up the stray bit of noise pollution contaminating the silence. The

rustling of trees in the wind outside, the fan on the computer, the speakers

giving out a very whispered, audible buzz, the sound of my breathing, all of

which are stopping the image from disappearing into darkness. Whilst the

virtual is merely a fragment of reality mediated through the screen, the

engagement with the new layer it forms constructs a point of focus. The

application of measured sensory data maintains reference to the world around

the observer, providing a more eective virtuality that can be further

developed into augmented reality.


22/31

[Fig. 8.] Simplistic sourcecode for visual piece, equations and functions rely heavily on numeric input

parameters that are obtained from the microphone and webcam.

[Fig. 9.] The script makes video input appear black when quiet, the image only becomes visible with

background noise. In these series of images the sensitivity has been turned down and music is playing,

each note on the piano causes the image to become visible.

Example video available fromhttp://pzt.me/maar
http://pzt.me/maarhttp://pzt.me/maar


23/31

In a more thematically elegant demonstration, Martin Rieser's installation

Hosts attempts to further reect upon the Christian iconographic themes of

human life and death in religious buildings. As made apparent by Vesely in the

example of Chartres Cathedral, the topographical arrangement and

orientation around the sun represents the death and resurrection of Christ inreference to solar cycles (VESELY, 2004. pp. 63-69). As we see in Rieser's work,

light plays a further role in communication and adds some tangibility to the

themes apparent in religious buildings. The installation, in the setting of Bath

Abbey, is composed of a series of screens. Visitors are issued a chirper (a type

of ultrasonic signal emitting badge) which reveal their location to the

installation in relation to the screens. Each screen has a vague blur of a person

that when approached by a visitor will come into focus and begin to engagewith the user. As the user stands near to the screen the host will smile and

return the visitors stare, occasionally looking over the visitor from head to toe.

If the individual stands in front of a host long enough it will begin to recite

poetic aphorisms, the mood of which dependant on the mood set selected

randomly from a bank of phrases (RIESER, 2005). These hosts begin to

epitomise augmented space; the visitor has a personalised experience of

information that is geographically located in that the participation in the

artwork is personal and the host sprite's response to you is unique. The

aphorisms themselves are important for the reection time inspired by

attempting to fully grasp what the host is saying.


24/31

[Fig. 10.] Hosts installed within Bath abbey. The host sprites appear as a vague blur until you walk up

close.

Source: http://www.martinrieser.com/Hosts.htm


25/31

We have already seen the virtual as a representation of abstracted layers of

reality whilst exploring the denition of virtual reality. We have also seen that

augmented reality relies on a continuity of reference in order to achieve any

level of success. However, Slavoj iek, in his video documentary, The Reality

of the Virtual, pushes this further by asking what is virtual about reality. iek

begins by registering his distaste for the virtual reality as a digital reproduction

of our experiences of reality. As our initial denition of augmented reality

relied upon this notion of virtual reality it becomes incredibly interesting

when the denition of virtual reality is turned upside down and we look at the

reality of the virtual. Using Lacanian psychoanalysis, in particular the Lacanian

triad (the Three Orders) of the symbolic, the real and the imaginary as a

method of breaking down the virtual we begin to see that virtual reality

transcends the digital.

The imaginary virtual, according to iek, is phenomenologically crucial in our

interaction with others. When engaged in conversation, we abstract and

fragment the phenomenological image of the other person to only deal with

that which is important for the conversation and leave behind the distracting,

embarrassing and sometimes disgusting information. For example, in a

conversation with someone it is known and sometimes even evident that the

person you are talking to sweats, they defecate and they engage in sexual

intercourse. Within the context of the conversation this information is

unnecessary and could even become detrimental; the imaginary virtual imageof the individual becomes the truncated reality that structures the situation.

The imaginary virtual reality becomes the load bearing layer upon reality, not

fully actualised but invaluable to conversation.


26/31

The order of the symbolic other is an expression of the relationship of the

subject to the big Other, here given in the example of paternal authority. Here

paternal authority is only able to be eective if it exists as virtual, the

actualisation of paternal authority through physical and verbal violence

destroys the relationship. The symbolic virtual is in this instance a threat, thelook a father gives in order to control and it can only ever exist virtually. iek

uses another example in belief, for example belief in Santa Claus. Belief that

cannot be fully actualised can also be seen within religion and the relationship

to the God/gods we believe in, and as previously discussed under the authority

of, a Deity or higher being. When the belief becomes too strong, when it is

taken too seriously it becomes frightening and as iek describes it

monstrous. The symbolic virtual reality can therefore be seen as the virtualstructure to systems of belief, threat and authority, only able to exist when not

enacted.

When progressing onto the Real Virtual there is the issue of dening the real.

We have to begin by descending back into the orders to analyse the Imaginary

Real, the Symbolic Real and the Real Real. Briey, the Imaginary Real is

represented by images on the imaginary level that are horric and hard to

confront. The Symbolic Real is here represented by quantum physics,

theoretically and formulaically the results make sense and function but when

done experimentally, when the investigation is actualised the results are

unpredictable or unexpected (paradoxes, parallel universes, etc.) and while the

process is being observed the outcome is changed. The symbolic real therefore

only exists through formulae and signiers and cannot be experienced.

The Real Real is, according to iek, a level of subtext under the real narrative

level.

[The 'Real Real'] would have been all that accompanies the Symbolic Real

as its obscene shadow. (IEK, 2004)


27/31

He identies this most clearly in cinema, lms such asThe Sound of Music

andShortcutsstrike as good examples, the top narrative level tells one story

but underneath it all there is a subtle subtext that, when successful, plays to

our desire. InThe Sound of Music,iek believes that the Real Real ispresented in the two levels of narrative, the rst layer is that it is is story of

democratic resistance to Nazism. The second layer would be that it is about

honest fascists resisting decadent, Jewish, cosmopolitan takeover. In the

same way the Real Real is the unconscious level underneath the conscious level

of our experiences, in this sense it is what we do not know that we know

(IEK, 2004).

As we re-apply the Lacanian triad of the real to the virtual, iek likens the

real division of the virtual as the circular pattern abstracted from elds of

magnetic force using iron lings. The shape generated by the iron lings are

real but are the virtual abstraction of the real elds of magnetism that we

cannot experience rst-hand, to us it is the non-existent attractor (See gure

11).


28/31

[Fig. 11.] Fields of magnetism made apparent by iron lings. The magnet (attractor) is only real to us as an

abstraction created by the iron lings.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Magnet0873.png

With all of this discussed, how does this t in with the idea of Augmented

Reality? If we go back to the previous statement from MIT and look at it in this

context.

Augmented reality refers to the combination [o] the real and the virtual

to assist the user in his environment.

MIThrill (1999) MIT Wearable Computing Webpage [WWW] MIT Available from:

http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/lizzy/augmented-reality.html [Accessed: 10/03/2011].

Amazingly this denition requires no alteration to remove the reference to the

virtual reality mediated through computers and other devices. If we apply what

iek has informed us we start to throw up many questions. Firstly, if we are to

assume that beyond the three orders of virtual reality there is still reality left, is

the virtual reality, especially in its symbolic and imaginary order not already


29/31

enhancing our reality through its structuring of situation? Secondly, if we are

to take the phenomenal reality as the only reality we really know which largely

belongs to the imaginary virtual reality would we be in fact augmenting

(enhancing) the virtual reality with more layers of virtual reality? In order for

augmented reality to become useful does it need to complement these threeorders or would building upon the three orders in fact destroy them? Here I

am thinking of the symbolic virtual reality which seems to be quite fragile, the

imaginary real is also vulnerable when altered if we think back to the inverted

vision experiment. Perhaps augmented reality must primarily work on the

level of bringing something into focus that is not yet known, the subtext to the

narrative of reality?

Augmented reality observed technologically in its current state of infancy can

be seen merely as a gimmick, however, as it is starting to penetrate through

our daily activities with ever growing usefulness we can start to ask some

questions of why we might want to be using it. As a technique for layering

virtual information onto real-world topography in which there is also

orientation, architects, artists and designers will have to carefully consider the

data ows that will be using their buildings as a backdrop or framework

structure. Place, from what we learn from Heidegger, can be dened by the

insertion of a thing which gathers the fourfold into a location, for example

the bridge. As information is visually placed on our structures and around our

personal horizon will we be able to handle the resulting phenomenal image?We know that the continuity of reference can be maintained within the

abstraction of reality into the virtual. Reference to ground and cosmos leads to

a more useful abstraction that can be benecial is this how augmented

reality will seek to attain a more sophisticated level of representation? I would

be intrigued to see if the alternate views of virtual reality oered to us by


30/31

people like iek could be incorporated into augmented reality, informing the

way that it develops.


31/31

CRARY, J. (1990)Techniques of the Observer: On vision and modernity in the

nineteenth century. Cambridge MA, US: MIT Press.

GRAHAM-ROWE, D. (2011) Smart contact lenses for health and head-up displays.

New Scientist(2794). Available from:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927943.800-smart-contact-lenses-for-

health-and-headup-displays.html [Accessed: 29/04/2011]

HEIDEGGER, M. (1950)The ThingIN: HEIDEGGER, M. (1971)Poetry, Language,

Thought. New York, US: Harper and Row.

HEIDEGGER, M. (1951)Building Dwelling ThinkingIN: HEIDEGGER, M. (1971)

Poetry, Language, Thought. New York, US: Harper and Row.

HEIM, M. (1993)The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. New York, US: Oxford University

Press.

KERN, S. (1983)The Culture of Time and Space. Cambridge MA, US: Harvard

University Press.

KURZWEIL, R. (2005)The Singularity is Near. New York, US: Viking.

MANOVICH, L. (2002, 2005)The Poetics of Augmented Space. [WWW]

Manovich.net. Available from: http://manovich.net/DOCS/Augmented_2005.doc

[Accessed: 01/11/2010]

MITCHELL,W. J. (1995)City of Bits: Space, Place and the Infobahn. Cambridge MA,

US: MIT Press.

RIESER, M. (2006)Hosts[WWW] Available from:

http://www.martinrieser.com/Hosts.htm [Accessed: 15/02/2011]

VESELY, D. (2004)Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation. Cambridge MA,

US: MIT Press.

IEK, S.The Reality of the Virtual(2004) Documentary. Directed by: BEN WRIGHT.

UK. Self Published

Documents

Questioning Augmented Space