From Animation to Augmentation:Dennō Coiland the Composited Self

Abstract

The history of animation is crucial for understanding an augmented reality future. Both fields are expressly concerned with how to composite together different types of visual material. Debates over the aesthetics and Roquet, "From Animation to Augmentation," 2 ethics of image compositing in cel animation offer a prelude to similar debates occurring in the world of ubiquitous computing and augmented reality. Ubiquitous computing, also known as pervasive computing or ambient intelligence, describes the spread of computer technologies anywhere and everywhere throughout the lived environment. The overlapping field of augmented reality (AR) seeks to make this ubiquitous computational data more readily available within everyday sensory space, creating "mixed reality" environments compositing existing objects, buildings, and landscapes with synthetic audiovisual overlays.Animation can be understood as an important predecessor of these mixed reality experiments, given its long tradition of blending different visual materials with varying degrees of physical plasticity into the same perceptual field. As Suzanne Buchan's recent edited volume on "pervasive animation" (2013) Ubiquitous Computing and the Quest for SeamlessnessRoquet, "From Animation to Augmentation," 3 The resonance between animation and augmentation is evident in the discourse surrounding the emergence of ubiquitous computing. When Mark Weiser first set out to define ubiquitous computing as manager of the Xerox PARC lab in the 1990s, his colleagues' focus (and the popular imagination) was largely focused on creating self-contained virtual reality (VR) spaces cut off from everyday life. By placing users in an alternate reality housed entirely within a computer, VR often sought to leave ordinary space behind. In contrast, what Dourish and Bell (2011: 13) call Weiser's "animating vision" describes spreading simple computational technologies throughout already existing environments. Weiser rejected the VR push for immersion, preferring instead to bring computing out "where the action is," to borrow a phrase from Paul Dourish While rejecting the immersion of the VR headset, Weiser still imagined ubiquitous computing interfaces as largely invisible, smoothly integrated into existing environments. As Weiser writes in one of the first essays setting out his vision of ubiquitous computing, "a good tool is an invisible tool" (1994: 7). YetWeiser was quick to caution against trying to make these computational interfaces completely seamless, completely eliminating the boundary between user and technology or between device and device. Instead, Weiser advocated seamful interfaces with "beautiful seams" (Chalmers and MacColl, 2003: n.p.). Later ubiquitous computing interface designers have echoed this concern, noting that when the various layers in a mixed reality environment don't quite come together, this in itself can afford a more active form of engagement. Dourish and Bell argue for leaving the seams visible so ubiquitous computing can become a way "not to repl...

Rocko’s Magic Capitalism: Commodity Fetishism in the Magical Realism ofRocko’s Modern Life

“…The digital commodification of space is further heightened by the proliferation of augmented reality, which enables 'the animation of reality' to an extent that even Imamura likely did not foresee (Driscoll, 2002). Japanese anime has already begun to explore the social implications of augmented reality, which Roquet (2016) understands as a continuation of the historical desire to animate the world around us. The intersection of animation, capitalism, and animism has therefore gained even more significance than when Imamura first theorised their relationship in the early 20 th century.…”