In a recent paper published in Information, Communication and Society, I interviewed four artists working with augmented reality (AR) face filters. The article discusses the role of social media platforms like Meta and Snap in the definition of an āactually existing metaverse,ā that is, an alternative vision to the hyper-immersive 3D worlds most associated with…
Labels matter. Naming is both, taming and creating. In turn, the way we talk about virtual and augmented reality is important because it shapes the ways in which we think about these technological experiences, research them, and even experience them. This simple yet profound idea underpinning critical and constructivist approaches to communication studies is at…
In late August of 2024, Helsinki Fashion Week (HFW) was held on online, world-building platform VLGE. Still accessible via their Instagram Link Tree, Iāve explored up to 40 different digital fashion exhibitions. When done right, digital technologies can enable users to build alternative and immersive fashion experiences. The following is a review of the digital…
This article is derived from a paper recently published in International Journal of Cultural Studies, titled āGirl-instrument: Posthumanism, producers, and virtual performers in Japanese musicā. For a more detailed account, you can find the full article here. The Hyperreal Virtual Performers: Vocaloids While virtual performers have existed prior to the rise of mixed reality, progressions…
Play has always been at the centre of the metaverse. Gaming technology has a clear place in the history of virtual reality and worlds. From Oculus Riftās role in reinvigorating interest in virtual reality (Evans, 2018), to persistent virtual worlds like Second Life shaping our perception of virtual worlds (Boellstorff, 2015), games and gaming technology…
(Or, have we ever been physical?) Still from Shinjuku Calling (Yamagami Yukihiro 2014) Layering of the virtual on to the real is usually how Augmented Reality is described and explained, but layering is a strange metaphor to understand what is at stake when considering the physical-digital environments we live with. As provocation, consider when typographic ink lands on physical paper;…
‘Pop Beauty Stains, Filter” Heemsbergen L. 2023 (Midjourney) While using apps like TikTok or Instagram, if you decide to include an augmented reality (AR) filter (or lens) onto your image the top filters that come up, algorithmically targeted to users, will almost always include at least one ābeauty filterā. A beauty filter is an AR…
Fifteen years ago, a grad student named danah doyd was finishing off her dissertation titled Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics exploring how teens were leveraging newly forming social media to live their lives in novel ways; boyd spotted people and publics coming of age in new ways. Itās useful to…