Thursday 4 May, 1-3pm – Beatrice Tinsley 329, University of Canterbury
Zoom link: Passcode: 387429
One especially striking aspect of VR media is their apparent realism. This talk explores the claim that VR media are more realistic than previous representational forms. After an initial discussion of how the concept of realism has been treated in the aesthetic tradition, I will discuss possible explanations of the apparent realism of VR pictures, arguing that some are more useful than others in justifying the initial plausibility of VR realism. That VR media are distinctly immersive will be subjected to a critical scrutiny from which the popular concept will not emerge intact. An alternative account, perceptual or psychological realism, is the idea that virtual media engage our perceptual and affective psychology so as to seem real to us. This category includes the familiar phenomenon of spatial presence, but also a wide variety of other responses. Finally, I will discuss challenges to the idea that VR media provide an especially realistic rendering of spatial experience. In practice, the illusion of VR is severely compromised by technological shortcomings, but there are also deeper conceptual questions about the possibility of realism in VR media.
