CityXR: A Vision For Augmented Cities In The Shadow Of Hyper-Reality
Back in 2016, designer and filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda released Hyper-Reality, a concept film that imagined an augmented reality future where physical and virtual realities have merged, resulting in a “city saturated in media.” [embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=YJg02ivYzSs&feature=oembed[/embed] The 6-minute film presented an exploratory – and largely dystopic – vision of how our reality could soon be overloaded and overlaid with information. Though the film is the better part of a decade old, it remains relevant to modern discussions on how we conceptualize use cases for emerging virtual and augmented reality technologies.The film was heavily circulated, covered extensively across media and news outlets when it released. Despite its confronting and intentionally provocative imagery, it has been a highly influential concept – or, perhaps more accurately, a hypothetical cautionary tale – to those working on the technologies that would enable it to become reality. Matsuda himself subsequently began working in AR following the film’s release,
