Advanced Spatialities

Abstract

In this article the authors are going to explore a fundamental problem of modern spaces, and modern spatiality in general: their virtualization and final annihilation by augmenting them. There are two major domains where this happened and still happens: inside real space, and inside the virtual spaces of so-called location-based games. In both cases of its real and virtual appearance, space becomes efficient and therefore loses its uniqueness and identity, with concomitant effects on the user’s very own perception of reality. The authors will concentrate upon the case of gaming; here, augmentation re-shapes the perception of the real object in space (which is not originally part of the game) by making it an active element of the game, i.e. it utilizes the object (and furthermore the surrounding space) and thus frees it of its original meaning and utility. Furthermore, it gets incorporated into the artificial (virtual) space and acquires two new properties: it becomes interactive and as a result, interchangeable. The perception of reality thus gets augmented at the same time as it gets reduced to the bare minimum of information needed to reach the goal of the game. The authors will be providing a set of rules to address these phenomena in a generic manner.