Iperimmaginare l’ipermondo: locative media e augmented reality

Abstract

Starting from the multimedia communication forms at the turn of the 21st century - which were still linked to the traditional media – a communication form that we can define as “hypermedial” has quickly developed. The main characteristic of the so-called “hypermedia” is that they are geo-located and work as locative media, establishing a relation to the internet based on their geographical position. This way, the users of locative devices are able to improve the information that can be produced and received within the environment in which they are located (augmented reality). This contribution analyzes from a semiotic point of view some dynamics linked to the potentialities of the locative media. The geolocation makes possible to identify subjects/communication nodes within a digital hyper-world, which is only an imaginary – or “hyper-imaginary” – map. Through this map a communication/information flow develops, related to a real subject who is located in a real world and relocated into a hyperspace-hyperworld. The user of the device, who is located in the real world, is the transit point of the hyper-information that the hypermedia pours into the real world, producing – in the subject himself – an improvement of the meaningfulness of the world and a change in the way he manages the space.