Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 13.5
Exit Glacier Terminus Project (2001 Terminus) by Nathan Shafer (
2013
), five different
AR versions of glacial termini where built on location at Exit Glacier, this is the terminus from the
year 2001 (Source: Nathan Shafer)
Exit Glacier is one of a very small number of glaciers in the world that are easily
accessible from a highway. The US National Park Service has been aggressive
in its work to illustrate global warming at this glacier. The AR project digitally
reconstructs five of the former termini on location in Kenai Fjords National Park,
based wholly on the glacier itself as a reflexive object: 2001 (year of 9/11), 1994
(Mosaic, the first popular web browser), 1979 (the artist's birth year), 1964 (Good
Friday Earthquake in Southcentral Alaska) and 1953 (The Wild One, starring
Marlon Brando). These years were selected for their connection to the variety of
human experience, relatable to the timeframe of the glacier, setting up an anamnesis
of the viewer's environment, projecting their memories and experiences onto the
augments that are points of interest at the glacier. There is a viscous collective
knowledge intrinsic to the human condition in viewing mediated wilderness, which
is activated by language.
Exit Glacier also encapsulates one of the continuous multiplicities for the event
of augmenting wilderness, the bits of code needed to make geolocation-based AR
work on site. On contemporary mobile devices the necessary elements, which must
be active are the compass, gyroscope, accelerometer, GPS and Internet connectivity.
Internet connectivity is the wild card is the group. GPS is usually faster than Wi-Fi
and universally accessible on mobile computers, though Alaska's latitude on the
planet can create dead zones in valleys or mountains. The radio waves needed
