Harry Potter’s Invisibility Cloak

I think we all remember this scene… [Credit: News.com.au]

The way we visualise the invisible depends on the medium that we use to do so. For example, when I fly to Perth, I literally have no concept of where I am, but if I turn on the “Flight Path” channel on the in-flight entertainment system, I can see exactly where in the world I currently am flying over. The invisible flight path is illuminated by the dotted line and the plane symbol shows the exact location- perfect!

I believe that things such as Facebook Check-Ins and Foursquare (geotagging) has really lead the way in the social media world in making the invisible, visible. There is a visible track of the places and photos of places that I have been to.

The reading by Paul Virilio (1997) explains that there has been an “industrialisation of vision”, which has altered our perceptions of vision in a negative way. I agree with this point, as we could use the smartphone to exemplify this “industrialisation”- people needing to constantly feel that they need to connect with people that aren’t physically there with them.

The Google Glass, when released, will be an absolute phenomenon and will re-revolutionise the already revolutionised social media, smartphone and switched on world. Although I understand that there is a myriad of privacy issues – I think that this kind of technology is going to really change the way we interact with each other. On the plus side, I already wear glasses so I’m all ready for them!!