[From Wired’s Underwire blog, which includes videos and additional images]
[Image: Keiichi Matsuda’s video “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” shows off his sci-fi view of the future]
Sci-Fi-Infused Videos Show Off Keiichi Matsuda’s Vision of the Future
By Matt Fisher
January 19, 2012
We are living in the future — Keiichi Matsuda knows that. Working from London and Tokyo, the 27-year-old designer and filmmaker creates innovative videos that blend architecture, virtual reality, social networking and sci-fi, offering a glimpse into how augmented reality could play out in the coming years.
His two most recognized films, “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” and “Augmented City,” displayed his artistic vision and racked up thousands of views on YouTube.
“I’m still not quite sure how to tell others what I do, which I hope is a sign that I’m breaking new ground!” Matsuda told Wired.com in an e-mail interview. “I always seem to hover around the intersection of technology, media and urbanism. The tensions that emerge when we try and combine the virtual and physical are an underlying thread that link my projects.”
This theme is quite evident in his video “The Pusher,” which tells a story of how advertising and billboards litter the landscape and essentially get us hooked like crack addicts. (See these videos and stills from Matsuda’s work in the gallery above.)
Augmented reality and virtual reality may be thought of as Hollywood visual effects more than real-world applications. However, with recent technological leaps in smartphones, videogames and motion tracking, augmented reality is coming off the screens of Minority Report and other sci-fi entertainment and into reality.
Matsuda said he feels lucky to be working in a time when such interactive technologies are finally breaking away from our video screen and gadgets and adapting to the cityscape.
“The way we experience space is no longer only about our physical surroundings; we should now be considering the city as a site for virtual encounters, and design the space accordingly.”
His video “Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop” solidifies Matsuda’s ideas on space by showing a world where your viewable surroundings can all be customized as you see fit. The video takes ideas from our favorite gadgets and amplifies them to every part of daily life.
Coming from an architecture background and recently graduating from The Bartlett School, Matsuda says the golden age of architecture is over.
“While I love it as a field of study, I think that technology has a greater impact on the way we live now,” he said. “Communication technologies in particular are moving so quickly, and define so many of our everyday experiences. They are presenting lots of new, interesting and sometimes frightening problems, and it is design that will play the vital role in shaping them into a positive force.”
‘Some people have been very enthusiastic about the technology, and some horrified by its implications.’
Reactions to his work have been varied. “Some people have been very enthusiastic about the technology, and some horrified by its implications,” Matsuda said. “The films are designed to be provocations, and to inspire debate, so it’s been fantastic to see people opening up to these ideas.”
2012 will bring big changes to Matsuda and his projects. He’s set up a design-led think tank called Beam and is seeking collaborators interested in experimenting with and exploring the social ramifications of emerging technologies.
“The public is still waiting to be sold on the vision of [augmented reality], but there is a lack of imagination in the industry as to what the technology can do,” Matsuda said. “We are in a position of power at the moment, and we need a vision of the future that is sustainable, helpful, and doesn’t compromise us. If we can just establish the vision, then I feel we have more chance of leading the technology in a way that can be a positive force.”