Paranovirus: Bridging Realities Using Digital Media Simulations
TEI'17 (ACM) Design Challenge Finalist and Invited Demonstration, Paranovirus is a malicious software concept which explores the potential for abuse of Augmented Reality (AR) to enable bad actors to covertly influence the behavior and mental states of individuals. Paranovirus challenges us to consider ways “reality” can become muddled when immersive media, the imagination, and our senses overlap–much as they can when reading a scary novel on a stormy night. Using models of presence and cognition, Paranovirus proposes design principles and tactics for displaying subliminal or preconscious media to a user which evoke their imagination and cause the simulations to appear to be physically real. Paranovirus: Bridging Realities Using Digital Media Simulations is published in the proceedings of TEI’17 and was demonstrated in Yokohama, Japan on March 21, 2017.
Download the paper HERE or check out the DOI at http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3024969.3035531.
Poster for TEI'17 depicts the future history of Paranovirus. I am of the opinion that it is not a matter of "if' something like this will happen, but when. The project is meant to provoke and perhaps warn of what happens when we stop looking at screens and begin looking through them, allowing them to quite literally mediate our reality. A special thanks to the talented Allivia Jo for consultation on developing the visual story of Paranovirus.
Scenario in which Paranovirus uses knowledge of calendar, movement, habits, and physical context to disrupt life–with potentially damaging consequences.
Missing Keys Scenario Video
Demo artifact for TEI'17. This model is constructed from laser cut mounting board. Despite being full of terrifying predictions for the future, the entire model packs flat into three letter size manilla envelopes which fit comfortably in standard carryon luggage for easy transport between Chicago and Yokohama.
TEI'17 demo booth