Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
17.2
Perceptual Shifts
The creation of AR situations requires a methodology of a creative process
for exposing art motifs and formulas, exploiting locative space and generating
experiential discovery in order to situate consciousness (Dolinsky
2004
). The
aesthetic moments in an AR experience are multi-layered ascertainments of loca-
tive spaces, artistic designations and psychic dilemmas. It is in the process of
locating the artwork and identifying its existence that generates experiences that
are geographical, corporeal and subjective. A confrontation with AR combines the
experimental moment with conscious awareness and offers a shift in perception.
Offering heightened awareness, this sensation becomes an extra-marginal moment
in an intellective engagement, or a perceptual shift (Dolinsky
2004
).
A perceptual shift is the cognitive recognition of having experienced something
extra-marginal, on the boundaries of normal awareness, outside of conditioned
attenuation. Promoting a “perceptual shift” for the visitor is a historical tradition
in some art forms that aim towards altering perception. Perceptual shifts are often
provoked by such art as
trompe l'oeil,
Cubism, Cornell boxes, labyrinth gardens,
and Brecht's political theater. These motifs are a reason that I exploit AR as a virtual
environment. As a type of interactive media, AR has a quality that requires a specific
engagement unique to the peripheral devices and its ability to situate particular
artistic performances. Once the visitor becomes complicit in his or her role within
that interaction relationship, possibilities are expanded for cognitive recognition and
perceptual shift. In my work, I am not necessarily attempting to shape emotion in
particular, but I do hope to shape perceptual possibilities within environments by
situating AR experiences.
The most important performance measure of effectiveness for media experiences
is psychological immersion. Psychological immersion occurs when a visitor's
senses are so aroused by the virtual experience that their emotions and intellect
react as if they are in the actual world or participating in another world event
(Rosen et al.
1994
). We are most familiar with this phenomenon as we tend
to weave ourselves into the plot of a film or the drama of a video game. AR
art offers a sense of immersion when a locative activity engages the visitor in
transforming a seemingly neutral, albeit public space into a subversive and aesthetic
communication scene.
AR art allows us to incorporate virtual objects into our physical space and
promote psychological immersion by repositioning our body's physical relationship
to the world and moreover, affecting our emotional thinking. As a result, AR
can restructure mundane existence. In AR, we must construct an understanding
of how the 3D computer graphical object consummates with our world. Through
psychological immersion, we gain an understanding of how we function in relation
to its ubiety. We consider rules that were previously transparent and permutate them
to orchestrate a shared sense of augmented reality. The integration of imaginative
virtual art objects in public spaces not only gives us the opportunity to experience
an “other” type of “being” in the world, the space itself exists as both real and
