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In-Depth Information
to predetermined or intended functions” (
2010
: 4), rather it is through use that
functions and usage modes come to light and their relative value and importance
is revealed. AR as it stands is being promoted as a marketing technology, with
the principle AR browsers developing corporate tie-ins using image recognition
to replace QR codes in conjunction with location based AR applications. The
technology is being thus presented and developed as a method of connecting
companies with their customers in real space. While these applications will be a
feature of the mature practice of AR, they are, to invoke the developers of the
Urban Tapestries
public authoring project, “unnecessarily impoverished” (Angus
et al.
2008
: 44-51).
Art practices have a role to play in broadening the understanding of technologies'
application through expanding their range of application and permitted usages.
NAMAland
demonstrates one such application, but the potential for these tools is
only limited by the datasets which can be accessed and the desire by artists and
activists to engage with them as part of their practice. At an everyday level this
might be the difference between AR enabling a retailer to deliver location-aware
special offers and deals to a customer's phone alongside the ability of the user
to interrogate the retailer's history on a range of issues from health and safety to
their environmental record or simply customer satisfaction. This is not necessarily
to privilege one over the other. Both have their place but what is of the prime
importance is that multiple options co-exist as aids to informed decision making,
where the user can offset say a welcome discount earned by checking-in against the
company's anti-union policies.
NAMAland
is an application of AR technology which has reached a wide audi-
ence through usage, mainstream media accounts and word of mouth by addressing
specific local issues (with arguably a wider import). This success establishes AR
as a tool of political and artistic critique which can reveal and situate information
of political and cultural significance.
NAMAland
points toward the potential for the
development of artistic and activist practices which expand and re-define the praxis
of urban intervention through the ability to identify and activate site through the
deployment of AR techniques, supported by contextual static and real-time data, to
produce a hybrid convergence of geographic space and data space. This ability to
generate site specific data rich hybrid spaces assumes a greater importance when
connected to the Open Data movement and the popularisation of data scraping
techniques with services such as Scraperwiki
11
and the growing community of data
journalism advocates sharing techniques.
12
As new sources of data become available
there are opportunities for artists and activists to go beyond the rhetoric of the smart
economy and develop critical narratives and interventionist strategies based on this
newly liberated data. If AR art practices are to shape the technology, expand the
range of practices and establish the technology as a tool for enhancing and critiquing
11
See scraperwiki.com
12
See,
for
example,
Data Driven
Journalism
publishers
of
the Data Journalism
handbook
datadrivenjournalism.net
