Page 11 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

It is this new fabric that is linking different civi- lizations and, if telephone systems and Internet were initially connecting people, soon devices will be similarly linked and so will homes, build- ings and even highways. This is what is meant by The Internet of Things.
Each era has a metaphor to help give meaning to new inventions and developments. If the meta- phor was cities as machines in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, when the 21st century approached, these comparisons became gradually meaningless as the machine gained connections. We started to compare
the advances with the human body instead and even the nervous system which in turn led to the brain, neurons and the electrical activation systems, to help us understand the develop- ments brought to us by technology companies, laboratories, universities and the new framework for business and social relationships.
We cannot tackle the changes in our culture in the broader sense without being aware of this new ecosystem that affects the creative mecha- nisms as much as their consumption.
The fact that everything is connected, that almost any device will also be a sensor and the executor of some kind of task, either electronic or mechanic, means a new environment for humanity that also forms part of the mesh we are speaking about.
A mixed reality
The combined new world, linked by cables and waves to the real world, is creating a new model of reality that is being dubbed ‘mixed’. Mixed re- ality3 or hybrid reality as defined by Wikipedia is the combination of virtual reality and augmented reality. This combination allows for the creation of new spaces where people and objects both real and virtual can interact.
We will begin by analyzing how augmented reality is a new layer that can be placed over natural reality and man-made physical things. Seen on screens – phones and tablets – this virtual reality allows us to see other elements that are not accessible to our senses except when we put a screen between our eyes and what we see. By focusing a cell phone on a monument with an augmented reality app, the screen displays new data just above what we are viewing, or the inside of what we are viewing
or any other information that can fit above the targeted image.
On the other hand, virtual reality allows for the recreation of people and the entire world on a very broad realism scale, from figures con- structed out of purely geometrical vectors to cinematographic recreations that are very real. As machines have become more potent, they have produced quasi-real scenes that, apart from the fact they can’t be touched, are very difficult to distinguish from reality, and have been for some time now.
Augmented reality: a cell phone image offering, via the camera, the view of a street with
the digital street map superimposed.
AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2018
11
Digital Trends in Culture