Augmented Reality Takes Over New York’s Museum of Modern Art

New York Times reporter Eduardo Porter was witness to a unique exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art last month. Organized by artists Mark Skwarek and Sander Veenhof, the exhibition made use of an augmented reality app called Layar to upload work that could only be seen via an iPhone.

While unsuspecting audience were appreciating the art galleries, Porter could see the Berlin Wall, a desert path and faces, all floating in air in front of him (video below).

He writes about his experiences in the Times and does not seem to be too comfortable with how augmented reality could affect our lives in the future.

Yet I wonder what this could do to our everyday experience. Just as I downloaded a filter onto my iPhone to find new art on MoMA’s walls, why couldn’t I overlay alternate skins on everything else? Maybe replace the building outside my window with a seascape? Or hang a disco ball from the subway car on my way home?

It can’t be long before some entrepreneur installs the technology on a pair of wraparound shades, with earplugs for sound. We could choose realities to drape over the world on iTunes. The bucolic will change cityscapes to forests; fast-food devotees will roam a world where everyone is lithe. I find this prospect unsettling. Right now, this may have the fun, innocuous feeling of Wii. But what will so many alternative realities do to the one in which we live?