Reflection on Chapters 4-6

The SIGGRAPH 2000 Art Gallery has introduced unique and exceptional programs that have given people an insight on the digital design world. I found that the idea of the Magic Book was quite interesting. The Magic Book is a mixed reality interface that uses a real book to seamlessly transport users between reality and virtuality. A vision-based tracking method is used to overlay virtual models on real book pages, creating an augmented reality scene. When users see an augmented reality scene they are interested in they can fly inside it and experience it as an immersive virtual reality. The interface also supports multi-scale collaboration, allowing multiple users to experience the same virtual environment either from an egocentric or an exocentric perspective. Here we have a simple book that has turned into a three dimensional virtual experience. The purpose of the Magic Book is for children to enjoy reading by making the movement from the flat symbolic space of the printed page to the visual, three- dimensional space of virtual reality. In other words, the creators have made simple pictures and texts in a book and have turned them into reality. There isn’t a limit in terms of imagination when it comes to the Magic Book. This program has given people a chance to take simple texts and turn them into an interactive program. A program that I believe is quite amazing. Technology such as the Magic Book can be simply used for anything. It can be used for business purposes, advertising purposes, teaching purposes, etc. The Magic Book can benefit a lot of people and may make life a lot simpler in terms of receiving information.

After reading the chapters, I found that the idea of remediation was constantly being brought up throughout the chapters. Specifically when talking about the SIGGRAPRH pieces that were presented at the Art Gallery; the Wooden Mirror, Nosce Te Ipsum, Magic Book, Fakeshop, T- Garden, and Terminal Time. As stated in the book these pieces are all deep remediations of documentary television, painting, collage, and even the microscope. It makes us aware of the earliest media forms in the very act of refashioning them. The idea of remediation is taking the old and making it new. In the book “Remediation: Understanding New Media” it gives a broader understanding of the idea of remediation. Earlier media such as painting, television, photography and film are the foundations on which the cultural importance of new media is attained. This importance is attained through competing with, paying homage to and reshaping this older type of media. This process is not a modern trend. It can be seen in the evolution of painting to photography, stage production to film and magazine to web site. Works of media nearly always draw from another type of media to create a new piece. For example, a movie based on a novel. Many pieces of media would not exist if it weren’t for those that pre-existed. There are no pieces of new media in the real sense of the word. Even though we are seeing exciting new understandings and changes, these would not exist if it weren’t for media already in circulation. All media build together and are always influencing one another. Mediation and reality cannot be detached from one another. Cultural tendency will always exist in new media.