project summary
At the ‘Wireless World’ conference held earlier this year in Sydney, Mark Pesce, a locally based futurologist and inventor, delivered a paper titled ‘Everywhere’. His opening observation was that Sydney 2008 looks much the same as Sydney 30 years ago. The built environment is little changed yet our experience of the city is ‘completely different’.
Pesce observes that we still,
‘walk the streets of the city, but we swim through an ether of information.’
The infiltration of devices that allow us to be constantly ‘connected’ have subtly, yet radically, transformed our experience of life in the city. We are at once physically in the city but remotely elsewhere. Our perception of our surroundings is negotiated through a state of distraction and underlying sense of security enabled by the knowledge that we are part of a live network.
Efficiencies are increased – Devices used to save time to waste time…
Technological developments such as augmented reality, will immerse us in a new hybrid space creating a new public realm. They will facilitate unprecedented levels of connection with information and new forms of individual and collective experience. In a world managed by ‘protocols’ and automation, ruled by the efficiencies of computing, the Glitch provides a momentary escape. Whether an error or a form of action the glitch acknowledges, as a starting point, the pervasiveness of the 'system'. It is when the all pervasive meets the glitch that it gets interesting. Regardless of whether the system is over-ridden or breaks down, the glitch offers us empowerment. In this system empowerment may be criminal (as in hacking), creative (challenging normal protocols), coincidence (as in system break-down), or playful (just for fun!).
Glitch being an act that is deliberate and informed offers us a chance to secure our future culture and history. The act of glitching offers us a chance to safe guard our core values. An informed dialogue must begin now in order for us to effectively question what we hold dear, and what we are willing to let go. When we consider the multiplicitous nature of infomatic systems we understand that it allows the voice of all to be heard.
Augmented reality, as technology and device has the potential to offer us any aesthetic experience that we. The dematerialization and disembodiment facilitated by this technology will again fundamentally change the way in which we navigate and act in the city.
Login 2030 calls for action and participation and acknowledges that it will be through the digital we find our creative challenges lie.
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