Augmented unreality: Synesthetic artworks and audiovisual hallucinations

Abstract

Jonathan Weinel deals with the representation of hallucinations within audiovisual media. Weinel forms his discussion around the concept of augmented unreality, providing examples from films, VJ performances, video games, and other audiovisual media to show how sounds are used to represent hallucinations. His focus is on the material design of the representations of hallucinations, and he discusses how the form of visual and auditory hallucinations may serve as the basis for audiovisual artworks. In conclusion, Weinel provides a set of structural norms that define representations of psychedelic hallucinations, and he hypothesizes that, given improvement of digital technologies, the boundaries between external reality and synthetic unreality might gradually dissolve.