Augmented Spaces - Zidane

This is a really interesting way to describe the world around us - with many of these readings I’m learning about new ways to view the existing features of our everyday lives in a new scope. (From chart junk to deceptive graphics and now to Augmented Space). In terms of the library, I saw many examples of augmented space right when I entered. There are many tv screens of different sizes that provide information about upcoming library events, staff book picks , etc. It was also interesting to observe how in the transition from the 20th to the 21st century, the scope of technological advancement has switched from providing access to virtual spaces from a stationary computer, to bringing these virtual spaces along with the user into the actual physical spaces they inhabit. Even more interesting, is the fact that the library utilizes both of these techniques - both with stationary Macs and desktop PCs that allow you to interact in different ways with the contents of the library, and the tv screens that give visitors direction.

There was a particular concept in the article that raised some concerns for me: the one where they speak about collecting a multitude of different types of information to allow a centralized program to perform tasks and make recommendations for them. The first thought that comes to mind is a black mirror episode where they take this concept to the extreme, and create an AI of a person by copying their conscience into a program, and having it perform their tasks around the house for them. While this is clearly an extreme and unlikely case, the real life example mentioned in the article has the same goals, and the means to achieve these goals involve a great deal of privacy breaching.

Conceptualizing this concept for the library. To what extent does a user need to be physically tracked through the library, or have their preferences data mined from their browsing data? It may be interesting to track their path through the library and observe how they explore different sections in order to give recommendations based on sections they might not know much about or more of the catalog of the sections they do visit. To a much lesser degree, the same information can be obtained by tracking their checkout and search history (on the library website ONLY). The first idea is much more useful in terms of the breadth of things you can actually do with the data, but how justified is the breach of personal space and privacy for that goal?

The article also mentions immersion - how you can be immersed in different ways through both augmented and virtual reality, as well as traditional ways of viewing media. I.e. video games, movie theaters. The library’s tv screens by the entrance could be seen as the greatest attempt to strive for immersion, but I personally don’t feel that they create that effect you get when watching a good movie in the theater, or when you’re engaged in a great video game. I acknowledge that these are meant to be different experiences, but I do feel like the library has the potential reach it’s own type of immersion - separate from the traditional feeling of immersion you achieve when you’re in a particularly silent section of the library engrossed in a particularly good book. It could be argued that audio books are a form of technology that the library offers that creates a type of immersion separate from the traditional form.

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