Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 16.2
A screenshot of
The Invisible Pink Unicorn
, 2011, Les Liens Invisible, augmented
reality, copyright Les Liens Invisible. Description: One view St. Peter's Square of Rome during
the apparition of
The Invisible Pink Unicorn
can alter, challenge and reshape the perception of a public space—especially a very
closed and symbolic one like the [
sic
] St. Peter's Square in Rome” (Les Liens
Invisible
2011
).
16.2
The Problem of Squatting in Space
Exploring the issue aroused by using AR technologies as “site vs. non-site,”
“materiality vs. immateriality” or ubiquity of an art that is “not here, not there”
brings us to the topic of representation in art.
With the birth of net.art, the Web began to be used as the space
par excellence
for all that was immaterial, encouraging new directions in art focused on the real
versus the virtual. “The 1990s were about the virtual. It started with the media
obsession with Virtual Reality (VR). It is quite possible that this decade of the 2000s
will turn out to be about the physical—that is, physical space filled with electronic
and visual information” (Manovich
2005
). Since 2002, Lev Manovich has traced
the development “of the technologies which deliver data to, or extract data from,
physical space—and which already are widely employed at the time of this writing
(early 2002/2005).” (ibidem) Manovich thus turns the crux of the matter on its head;
the point is not technology but space, and the definition of art that overlays and
occupies that space.
