Analysis of phenomenological augmented reality as medium in contemporary art (2011 Venice and Istanbul Biennials)

Phenomenology has been center of the tradition of continental European philosophy throughout the 20^th century. Phenomenology, as we know it, was started by Edmund Husserl. Husserl proposed practice of phenomenology by “bracketing” the question of the existence of the natural world around us. Husserl's suggestion was followed by a flurry of phenomenological writing in the first half of the 20^th century. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, one of the famous classical phenomenologists, expanded a rich variety of phenomenology emphasizing the role of the body in human experience. He concentrated on the “body image” and “Body Schema”, our experience of our own body and its importance in our activities. He refused Cartesian dualism between soul and body and believed in subject-body. Many artists deal with digital and electronic technologies as a medium that suggests creative ideas to them. Augmented Reality is one of the newest technologies. Augmented Reality is the art of super-imposing computer graphics over a direct or indirect view of the real and physical world. Augmented Reality Art is an artwork exhibited in a real world using Augmented Reality technology as medium. Since Augmented Reality Art is, fundamentally, digital art embedded into a real-world environment, it can easily be made interactive and animated. As the viewer must become physically involved with the site to experience the artwork, Augmented Reality Art provides the embodied experience of the human body. Recent advantages in Augmented Reality applications have led to an important shift in the understanding of the nature and type of Augmented Reality and its novel areas of applications, such as Art. However, the current progress in the field of Augmented Reality and Augmented Reality Art requires continuous logical and methodological attention. This paper is just a step toward understanding the concept of Augmented Reality Art. The current paper aims to examine the role of body in experience of Augmented Reality Art and provides a phenomenological analysis of Augmented Reality as medium in Contemporary Art. First of all, we will define Augmented Reality as a technology in new media era. Then we will survey its applications in activism, medical areas as well as its  experiences for Museum Visitors. After that, we will describe the characteristics and the main aspects of Augmented Reality Art with a comparison between this new media art and pre-Augmented Reality Art. Using contemporary interpretive and qualitative approaches to video analysis, we will analyze the natural data such as pictures and videos that have been downloaded from Internet. These videos show augmented reality artworks that were presented in 2011Venice and Istanbul Biennials. In the experience of Augmented Reality Art, the spectator is technically enabled to utilize the body schema to increase his agency as an embodied being. To improve this embodied experience, we have to develop a technology that is transparent and provides the transparency of directionality and the noematic one. The subject of this experience should not be able to see device or medium. Additionally, the object presented to subject must have the usual typology of perceivable object.