Reality Shifting – Part 2: Reality is Cracking and Multiplying Around Us

“Yes, the university is a graveyard, but it is also a factory: a
factory of meaning which produces civic life and at the same time
produces social death. A factory which produces the illusion that
meaning and reality can be separated; which everywhere reproduces the
empty reactionary behavior of students based on the values of life
(identity), liberty (electoral politics), and happiness (private
property).”
- Anti-Capital Projects, The Necrosocial

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.
And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will –
we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study
too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . .
and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
- Presidental Aide to George Bush, New York Times

Institutionalized Reality is currently cracking, splitting and multiplying. In the last few days, students across California appear to have transformed from apathetic alienated youth (seemingly in search of a grade and an exit) into a powerful force occupying university buildings cross the state. A few months ago, the University of California seemed an unlikely avenue for genuine social upheaval. The geophysical actions of many in the last few days have substantially altered that.

The student unrest presently occuring at the University of California prompts the question: can the gaps between geophysical and virtual realities actualize as spaces of liberation and transformation? If Augmented Reality is going to manifest simply as a better way to find real estate, then I would say no. However, if people can create uses for Augmented Technologies that move beyond the demands of capital and corporate interests, then maybe so. Projects such as Can You See Me Now (Blast Theory) illustrate how Mixed Reality can unleash latent potential found in urban spaces, as well as operating as distracting forms of entertainment.

Ricardo Dominguez describes some of my recent collaborations as Minor Simulation. One such collaboration between myself, Ricardo Dominguez and Elle Mehrmand is http://ucop.cc, a project that presents hacktivist-modified website copy of the University of California Office of the President. The ucop.cc project was created as a protest against the recent University budget cuts, layoffs and tuition increases (totaling 44 percent this year alone). The main difference between the hacktivist and original websites is that in our version, President Mark Yudof announces a new $0 Tuition program with the tagline “A return to core values – a fresh start”. In an interview with the UCSD Guardian, Dominguez comments on the ucop.cc project: “For at least a moment, the circuit was disrupted. It allowed another possibility to occur — and that’s to reimagine what the university can be.”

The goal of the ucop.cc project was to create a space of disruptive possibility and to use cracks in mainstream understanding of net protocols to present a truly free University of California. Perhaps this can be seen as a way of using the space between “traditional” reality versions, between truth and fiction, and as a way of inspiring action and imagination. Part 3 will offer conclusions regarding using Mixed/Augmented Reality as a strategy for finding and creating liberating spaces.