Virtual Reality

According to Bolter (2000, p.45), new digital media are characterized by remediation.  Remediation denotes that a new medium stays connected with its older form in a certain manner. Although still defined in terms of its predecessor, each new medium  promises an improvement by offering more transparency (Bolter, 2000, p.46). This implies that new media technology wants to offer an immediate experience in which there is a direct relationship between the user and the content of a medium (Bolter, 2000, p.24). This transparent and immediate experience is the goal of virtual reality.

Virtual reality relies on the principle of the Albertian window. Alberti wanted to achieve transparency in his paintings by using the linear perspective, which gave rise to a certain depth in his works (Bolter, 2000, p.24). The painting could be regarded as an open window through which the subject was seen. In this context, looking through is not similar to looking at, for example, a television. ‘Looking through’ can be found in the field of computer games, where it is now made possible to look through the eyes of a fictional character. Virtual reality wishes to go even further by trying to make the interface invisible e.g. virtual reality glasses such as The Oculus Rift.  This device allows gamers to control the game through certain head movements, leading to greater immersion into the virtual world. The player has, as it were, jumped through Alberti’s window.

In this respect, being in a virtual environment is a ‘disembodied’ experience. The mind is completely immersed into a virtual world in which the body can be seen as obsolete (Shaw, 2008, p.81). However, virtual reality can simultaneously be understood as an embodied experience, since it feels ‘real’ to the user. Meredith Bricken (1990) states that “cyberspace participants interact directly with the virtuality to experience the embodiment of the application. This environment is ‘as if real’.”  This embodiment can lead to what Biocca (1997) calls the cyborg’s dilemma:

 “The more natural the interface the more “human” it is, the more it adapts to the human body and mind. The more the interface adapts to the human body and mind, the more the body and mind adapts to the non-human interface. Therefore, the more natural the interface, the more we become “unnatural,” the more we become cyborgs.”

Nevertheless, virtual reality has not yet achieved complete transparency due to obstructing elements. However, Erkki Huhtamo (1999, p.42) argues that “technology is gradually becoming a second nature, a territory both external and internalised, and an object of desire. There is no need to make it transparent any longer, simply because it is not felt to be in contradiction to the ‘authenticity’ of the experience.”

Bibliography

Biocca, F. (1997) The Cyborg's Dilemma: Progressive Embodiment in Virtual Environments, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3(0).

Bricken, M. (1991). Virtual worlds: No interface to design. In M. Benedikt (Ed.),Cyberspace: First steps (pp. 363–382). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bolter, J.D., (2000). Remediation: Understanding New Media New Ed., MIT Press.

Shaw, D. (2008). Technoculture: The Key Concepts; Oxford Berg Press