Variation on a videogame or spatial graffiti; the socio-spatial and futurological implications of augmented reality and location awareness

By combining wearable and immersive computing 'location aware', mobile, 'augmented reality' devices, with GPS functionality, transform the screen into a 3-D to-scale global interface. This paper explores two possible design futures for augmented reality and their philosophical implications through post-structural social theory on urban space. Through the lens of Paul Virilio's critical media theory the paper first looks at a possible consumer application for networked interactive gaining in the context of military simulation and surveillance technologies. The paper then uses Henri Lefebvre's socio-spatial dialectic method and Deleuzoguattarian nomadology to speculates on an alternative design for augmented reality as a tool for the expression of emergent complex systems.