Reality Hack

an interruption of the normal processes of real world systems by digital, virtual, or fictional means. usually done for the purpose of social or cultural subversion, such as through culture jamming, urban exploration, and hactivism.

in pervasive gaming (or alternate reality gaming) and surrealist art (e.g. “happenings”) reality hacking refers to an experience that blurs the line between fiction and reality, or merges the game world with the real world.

some new age spiritual movements and other philosophers of consciousness, such as terrence mckenna, talk about reality hacking in terms of a theory of the universe as “holographic” and the need to “hack” our consciousness in order to gain awareness of reality.
anonymous hacks reality when they init-tate change in the real world by taking action in the digital world.

the street artist banksy created a piece that depicted a native american that appeared to be holding up the “no parking” sign that was already affixed to the wall. the piece incorporated a pre-existing object (the sign) into his work that, combined with the nature of the message, merged the real world and art, creating a reality hack. he used art to disrupt the system, both the social and political system (through an act of “vandalism) and our perceptual systems (through a surprising and unexpected way of using what is a normally mundane and overlooked object).

somewhere in golden gate park, there is a tiny door attached to a tree that opens up to a small hollow that’s called the “faery door”. when i unexpectedly stumbled upon it, i had to do a double take. it was a total reality hack.

have you ever done dmt? i had a crazy trip last weekend that felt so real, as if i was at one with the universe. it was like i hacked reality, finally able to infiltrate the illusion of the physical world.