Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Digital Borders and the Virtual Gallery
Jacob Garbe
7.1
Introduction
This chapter develops my previous work and thoughts arising from the exhibition
of augmented reality artwork (Garbe
2013
), specifically in how digital mediums are
in dialogue with physical space. As one enters the world of exhibition, it becomes
apparent that the challenge of new media interactive artwork in general has become
more and more familiar to the conversation of exhibition practice. These works
have required new notions both of effective curation, as well as preservation. But
while radical in many ways, for the most part these pieces still establish their
interactivity within a statically delineated physical space: a gallery, an installation,
or an area created through the formulation of specific environmental parameters.
They break down the fourth wall of passive experience through interactivity, but
still - for the most part - partake of traditional exhibition space, and leverage that
to provide boundaries for acceptable behavior. In many cases they are in active
dialogue with that space, and are engaging, co-opting, or subverting those spaces
and their accompanying expectations. But for all this, they remain concerned with a
specific physical location.
Augmented reality art, as a new media subset, distinguishes itself through its
peculiar mechanics of exhibition and performative re-contextualization. It allows
the artist to translocate the borders and constraints of the experience from physical
to virtual, expressing the piece onto spaces in a way that is independent of physical
or locative constraint, yet still tethered to the real world. This practice of anchoring
virtual assets to the physical world allows artists to make use of virtual properties
such as mutability and replication, while engaging with issues of embodiment,
performance, and presence. In this way AR pieces show themselves as dynamic
