From baroque fourth wall to Google Glasses. Topological Syntax and outriders of the Augmented City

Abstract

Being the Digital Revolution over the Twentieth century, locative media technology geolocates the digital layer strives to build the augmented city, whose access and perception by citizens is produced through electronic devices across a highly interactive communication model, where the concept of fourth wall is critical. In view of the technological determinism enhanced in hyperconnected societies, this research focuses on the nature of the fourth wall, denying some technological aspects that have been presented as pioneer. Here we show how the topology of this element is analogous to certain episodes that happened in the field of the arts. As analogical precedents, the baroque scenographies of Giovanni Battista Aleotti and Vicenzo Scamozzi are rescued as they broke the fourth wall by redefining the limit between fiction and reality, which in terms of augmented environments becomes the edge between digital and physical domain.