From the arts, media & humanities general program chair

Over the last year Mixed and Augmented Reality has reached a growing audience, going far beyond the interests of the technical scholar community. The emergence of more accessible software tools, and simple hardware solutions have made it easy for artists, designers, media companies and others to develop augmented reality applications for the masses. This transformation has been noticeable not only in the range of novel applications produced, but also by the innovative way the art and design community operates. More engaged, experimental, and concerned by the social aspects or aesthetic value of Mixed and Augmented reality these new developers all offer a new way to think about, design and create AR applications. We are really proud for ISMAR 2009 to acknowledge this evolving community by creating the new Arts, Media and Humanities program. This complements the existing science and technology program, and celebrates the achievements and new perspectives of a unique MR/AR community. The Arts perspective explores the use of MR/AR technology as a form of personal expression. The Media perspective explores MR/AR as a tool for engaging communication with new forms of story, games and play. The Humanities perspective leverages new conventions for use in interpreting the human experience. The Arts, Media and Humanities program is also innovative in its format, by adopting the participative and investigational aspect of this novel AR community. High quality paper presentations and outstanding keynote speakers are combined with a large range of discussion panels and creative, participative events and sessions. We wish to thank all those who have contributed to this inaugural ISMAR program, the authors, the program committee, reviewers and the conference organizers. We welcome you to ISMAR 2009, and the inaugural Arts, Media and Humanities program.