The Phygital Artifact

The book that you are holding is not a regular book, but a Complementary Phygital Book. According to the post- digital aesthetics, this project is associated to a hybrid of digital and analogue media. Based on the categorization that is being analyzed in the chapter In search for the phygital artifact, the characterization as a Complementary Phygital Project, derives from its dual existence between the physical and the digital world, where one phase complements the other. This means that an interdependency is created between the two forms and the one cannot exist without the other. Thus, some features of the Complementary Phygital Book can only be relieved through the digital layers and some important written information is only contained printed, in the following pages.

This book escapes from the norms of a typical book which content exists only in its regular paper pages, but also includes content in extra digital layers that the user unlocks, using a mobile phone as a medium. In the complementary phygital book, every drawing works as a hyperlink that leads to another image, a video, or a website. All the above function with the help of the application Augmenta, which creates scannable AR activations. Therefore, to fully understand the project, you need 3 elements: the printed book a smartphone the application of Augmenta.

The Complementary Phygital Book does only exist as a combination of the above components, although the printed book by itself can still be readable and understandable.

Abstract and Methodology....................................1-8

The perception of art in the era of Internet ........9-16

The narrative identity of the e-artist.................17-29

The platform of Instagram as an artistic medium.......................................31-42

The rise of mixed realities in the Post- Internet and Post- Digital era.......43-58

In search for the phygital artifact....................59-88

Where is the phygital artifact situated?.........89-104

Conclusions............................................105-118

Works cited............................................119- 124

Appendix..................................................125-140

The cell phone and the advanced applications that came along have changed our communicative ways with others, causing a physical, personal and social relocation. The cell phone, or better placed, the smartphone, has given a mobility to the web user, who actively participates on social media. As a consequence, the user is invited to a constant personal design that continuously changes just like the periodic updates of a gadget’s software.

“This strange mirror logic finds its uncanny echo in the selfie, […] literally using the cell phone as a mirror. This cult of self-surveillance is misunderstood as narcissism, but is more like a desperate attempt to position oneself that is now expanded by personal drones that video people from the air by following their phone” (Colomina, Wigley, 250)

Our body and mind expand by the use of the smartphone, which offers the possibility to construct a version “of you, of what is the real you for that world” (Colomina, Wigley, 251). The “you” for “that world” is your e-self, the construction of your representation. The e-shelf is expressed by social media tools, where images, texts, stickers, emojis, gifs, filters, comments and posts are offered to shape this kind of avatar. Those mentioned elements are also the tools for the avatar to narrate his own personal story. “Social media is not only a tool for self- design.