Why Use Augmented Space

A Multi-Purpose Medium

Augmented space installations can take many different, more interesting shapes than that of my own project. For instance...

• Architects could work with augmenters to design 'smart structures' filled with rich, dynamic digital information. 

• Educators might map their instructional materials onto a place. For example, a biology lecture on fish might occur in an augmented aquarium. 

• Historians have the opportunity to recreate major moments in the areas where they occurred. 

• Museum curators could bring exhibits to life. For instance, an art gallery might animate paintings with sound effects and information about the works.

• Musicians might set songs to certain locations. 

• Place-based psychology is an emerging discipline (Stedman 2002). Perhaps, psychologists can use augmented spaces to better understand the links between settings and the subconscious.

• Maybe you're like me and writing is your main lane. How might your memoir, poetry, fiction, or journalism function in this world? Sense-of-place literature is on the rise!

Appeal to the Future of Media

Once upon a time, the mediums for communication, expression, and record-keeping were thought distinct. From the birth of writing through the Modernist era, the various artistic and informational pathways were treated as separate entities with rigid fault running lines between them. Today, “in media hybrids, interfaces, techniques, and ultimately the most fundamental assumptions of different media forms and traditions, are brought together resulting in new media gestalts…different from experiencing all the elements separately” (Manovich 167). That is to say, new media hybrid projects do not merely muddle multiple mediums together at random. They mix them, mesh them, intertwine them on a deeper, fundamental level. Augmented space is a shining example of such a new media hybrid form, as it allows for the fusion of audio engineering, writing, photography, and/or other media within the same project environment. 

Appeal to the Digital Age Desire for Interactivity

In a time where video games, virtual reality, and social media are sweeping the globe, the demand for interactive media has never been greater. Along with new media hybridity, augmented spaces also foster interactivity given they are anchored to a particular place and involve audiences through sensorial, temporal, and kinetic effects. 

Appeal to Consciousness Wrought by Software Culture

In 1872, when modern psychology was just beginning to take shape, author and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, in his book, The Birth of Tragedy, described the difference between Apollonian and Dionysian impulses. Apollonian impulses appeal to a “desire for clarity…intelligibility…[and] impart a keen sense of individuality…” (Hammond 178). Dionysian impulses, conversely, inspire group participation, “transport, and awe…” (Hammond 178). The contrasts between these two impulses mirror those between the old and new media spheres. Old media forms are incredibly Apollonian in their make-up. Reading a book is, among the most introspective, analytical processes possible. Moreover, blogs, comics, films, and other multimedia forms, although more Dionysian than pure text, are still two-dimensional at the structural level. Augmented space is inherently Dionysian in its design and appeals to those who desire escapism, interaction, and wonderment, as opposed to stability and rationality. 

Reference

Hammond, Adam. Literature in the Digital Age: An Introduction. Cambridge UP, 2016. Print. 

Manovich, L. (2013). Software Takes Command: Extending the Language of New Media (International texts in critical media aesthetics). New York; London: Bloomsbury. https://primo.lib.umn.edu/permalink/f/1ti07d6/UMN_ALMA51609994200001701 

Stedman, Richard C. “Toward a Social Psychology of Place: Predicting Behavior from Place-Based Cognitions, Attitude, and Identity.” Environment and Behavior, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 561–81. 2002. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916502034005001.