Text and the sensorium: The augmented palimpsest as an augmented reality text

Abstract

Recent AR-enhanced publications, such as the IKEA Catalogue, The Art of Journey, and ColAR coloring pages and app for children that bring drawings to 3D life, are becoming much more common and raise intriguing questions about the application of AR for the arts and humanities and, more specifically, the reading experience. This chapter will explore these implications, using our project, The Augmented Palimpsest, as the case study. The project is a digital humanities tool that explores how the medium of AR can be applied to teach medieval literature effectively. Using Chaucer’s General Prologue, the tool delivers digital enhancements that emerge from the printed page via a smart device. We are creating simple print pages with highly detailed manuscript borders set around the text of Chaucer poem. As such, each page has the appearance of a medieval manuscript folio with a border that will, in fact, be coded with a variety of digital enhancements, including but not limited to audio, video, and graphical materials; and 3D models of figures, architecture, and objects. The student opens the appropriate AR application or “app” on a smart device, such as an iPhone, iPad, or Android tablet or phone, and then holds that device over individual fiducials embedded in the border to access the various enhancements coded to each fiducial.