Abstract

Various tools have been developed to bridge the gap between the digital and physical. Augmented reality attempts to address such problems by reintegrating electronic information back into the real world [Van Krevelen & Poelman 2010]. However, this also introduces new challenges. What might have been missing as the Internet of Things increasingly     connects sensor networks and programmable digital devices?As we further move into a digital‑oriented augmented reality, we become more isolated in artificial architecture. Nature has been gradually pushed out the way by technology. There is a real longing for contact with the non‑artificial, innate disposition. Where does nature end and technology dominate? How can augmented reality rebuild our connection with the local environment, not only the synthetic, manufactured environment, but also the natural, innate dispositions that technologies can hardly provide?What if we could manipulate the non‑digital, non‑artificial things? How do we engage the urban habitat in participatory experience of at a shared location? As urban spaces become more densely populated, the need for new ways to manipulate the physical environment – a freedom we’re used to from the digital world– has become an increasingly tangible desire. Sunlight is an essential element as we enter the post‑digital era. Shadows are at the core of how we experience the physical world. This research will present the Post‑digital Sunlight, an interactive kinetic installation. Accomplished through augmented remote reality, it engages urbanists and citizens to rethink about our relationship between technology and nature. The Post‑digital Sunlight initiates a new dialog between the programmable and non‑programmable worlds. While it pushes the boundaries across the physical and virtual, the artificial and nature, it further bridges the local and the remote.

• Sheng-Ying Pao, MIT Media Lab, USA