Augmented cities: revealed narratives

Abstract

The human relationship with the environment, history, and culture is framed by our already embedded experiences and mental images---we see what we expect to see. In turn, cultural and technological context continuously forms new mental images. This continuous feedback loop is expressed by the punchline to Microsoft's HoloLens commercial: "when you change the way you see the world, you can change the world you see." This exact paradigm of mutually dependent perception and reality is at the core of the contemporary discourse on immersive media environments. While this is not a new phenomenon, but one which has occurred multiple times throughout history, current implementations seem to be more disruptive, transformative, and at the same time promising in the way they engage everyday lives and connect emotionally with users.