Augmented Reality as a new Medium: Remediation and Novel Form

This dissertation is a pioneering exploration and mapping of the vast terrain of Augmented Reality (AR) as a new medium experienced from the unique perspective of being both a practitioner and academic researcher working with AR for the past nine years. AR has been typically defined as a layering of digital images, including text, audio, video, and 3D models, in real-time atop the physical environment and is experienced through an AR equipped device such as a smartphone, a tablet, a computer with a webcam, or a pair of see- through digital glasses. There is a current gap in knowledge in AR, particularly in the fields of communications, media, and humanities, with the critical need to revisit how we come to understand and define AR, especially at a time when AR is emerging as a medium, no longer just a technology found in Computer Science labs. This dissertation provides a first-hand look and foresight into the new world of AR, its promise and expanded capabilities building from a Communications and Culture foundation as a practitioner and researcher deeply immersed in the field. Setting a course of research-creation enabled a major technological innovation, resulting in ground-breaking work: the world's first AR book designed for the iPad using image tracking. The path of research-creation further led to a proposed visionary framework for the present state and coming future of AR entitled, The 40 Ideas That Will Change Augmented Reality, which documents and prescribes possibilities, proposing an articulation of a new language of AR.