Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
What impact does this style of art have on society and on the public? In what way
does it appropriate public and private space? And in doing so what political issues
does it raise and what participatory democratic processes does it activate?
William Gibson in a recent article writes: “Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon prison
design is a perennial metaphor in discussions of digital surveillance and data mining,
but it doesn't really suit an entity like Google.” (Gibson
2010
)
Manovich explains: “This close connection between surveillance and assistance
is one of the key characteristics of the high-tech society. This is how these
technologies are made to work, and this is why I am discussing data flows from the
space (surveillance, monitoring, tracking) and into the space (cellspace applications,
computer screens and other examples below) together.” (Ibidem) It is easy to see
that the heart of the matter lies in the definition of, or focus on, social space, or
Augmented Space, as a specific characteristic of high-tech society.
Deriving the term from 'augmented reality,' Manovich refers to this new kind of
space as “augmented space,” which is becoming a reality and works very well. What
is never explicitly mentioned, however, are the political implications that naturally
arise from this overlaying of layers, made possible by tracking and monitoring
users: “delivering information to users in space and extracting information about
these users are closely connected. Thus augmented space is also monitored space.”
(Ibidem)
In response to this encroaching form of social control Clemente Pestelli and
Gionatan Quintini, accepted Share Festival's invitation to produce the Special
Project 2010 with their usual creative cheekiness. Specially designed for the
sixth Piemonte Share Festival, the project mustered all the surreal and virtual
imagination that lies at the centre of their work to invade Turin's urban environment.
R.I.O.T./Reality Is Out There
(Share Festival
2010
)(seeFig.
16.3
) was a series
of urban strikes invisible to the naked eye—but for that no less tangible—using
augmented realities that surround us every day. The public was invited to uncover
the virtual sculptures through a game, a digital urban treasure hunt, and was
treated to the sight of flying objects such as floating bananas, Facebook banners,
revolutionary slogans, Space Invader icons and so on.
Deconstructing the natural association that has existed ever since the Stone Age
between reality and the tools we build to control it,
R.I.O.T.
turns this relationship
on its head by using reality as a tool, as a means through which we move to
explore a universe visible only on our smart phones, creating a sort of paradoxical
tourism. Setting their sights on augmented reality, or rather on the what the myth of
'augmented reality' appears to promise, the city of Turin was invaded by a series of
imaginary installations squatting in key locations.
16.3
The System of Art Is Under Attack
Other projects with direct political connotations for the Art System have been
organized by other artists. One very clever example was the virtual augmented
reality show held on October 9, 2010 at the MoMA building in New York—only
