Nudging Reality"You're in this other world, this other realness. It throws you into another dimension." Prototype tester at Lighthouse, Brighton
A live viewfinder-like device to expand what we notice in outdoor environments with headphones that mix recorded soundscapes with live amplified sound. Humans merge different views from each eye into a seamless whole. Replacing the view from your dominant eye with footage shot at the same scale as we see the world, and from the same vantage, causes the real and virtual to combine in a fluid way as your brain prioritises light and movement. “...a rare genuine art-science interaction, … a touchstone example of how technology can be used to highlight the processes through which we … are moved through the world.” Paul Graham, Professor of Neuroethology, University of Sussex Unlike AR where human-made artefacts are mapped into a livestream of the world, this illusion uses binocular-fusion to merge photoreal footage of the recent past with the present, so we notice what's changing, what's moving, what’s there. It’s a tool for looking and attending to how we look. The app allows an intuitive connection to things-that-move. Spooling image-sequences forward or backwards, we affect plays of wind and light or a bird flying skywards.People report seeing their surroundings more vividly afterwards. "It immerses you and it makes you almost invested in the story because not only are you viewing it in a real location, you are also controlling it (the action)..." Prototype tester at Lighthouse, Brighton The device was conceived during a Blast Theory Residency looking at sound, visuals and haptics as ways of conveying narrative and navigational cues. We then made a cardboard prototype, optics on a smartphone screen, during the Reframed Project Development Programme at Lighthouse. "I found ...the cardboard AR hack revolutionary! I loved how she brought together basic old techniques with simple technology to created something super accessible, but super-extraordinary." Participant in XR Circus, AHRC-funded investigation into immersive performance practice At Fusebox Immersive Lab we tested 360 film and built a second 3D printed prototype which allowed a live feed from the phone to test filters. Going forward we’re working on a standalone device, with analogue-feel controls, taking the smartphone out of the equation. |