Augmenting Wilderness: Points of Interest in Pre-connected Worlds

Abstract

This research looks at the way the aesthetics of object-oriented ontology performs in association with augmented reality art made on the borders of Internet connection. The focus of the research is on the notion of “wilderness onticology” by Levi Bryant, and the ideas of “hyperobjectivity” by Timothy Morton, while examining artworks by George Ahgupuk, Alvin Lucier, Mark Skwarek, Nathan Shafer, v1b3, and John Craig Freeman. Most of the conclusions of the research point to the praxis of the art historical anti-tradition as a tool for negotiating ontologies of the wilderness, or the unknown, as well as the virtual objects which exist there, for creating socially useful forms of art. Other topics include the usage of the Earth art binary of site/non-site, media ecology, and the flaneur.