Virtual reality
Nicholas Burbules makes “the virtual” the main topic of his BETHA talk. Burbules proposes a redefinition of the virtual as an immersive state that is neither real nor artificial and not dependent on technology. Instead, Burbules’ virtual exists wherever we experience interest, involvement, interactivity, and interaction. It is the state we experience when we are engrossed in a task or experience, and a time-honored goal of education. By these criteria, some so-called virtual reality experiences fall short. According to Burbules, we are not experiencing the immersive virtual under the influence of technology that simply washes over us. The true virtual requires use to be inter-actors. In its most successful realizations, it goes beyond being mere space to become place, a space endowed by its inhabitants with meaning and relevance. It also stretches time from ordinary chronological time, which is externally determined, to something more like tempo, or experienced time. The virtual possesses dangers, such that at the same time can have their usefulness. Anonymity, for example, allows for deceit and manipulation, but also for the airing of unpopular ideas.
Links to Nicholas Burbules’ writing on the virtual
Brenda Laurel, whose own writings on virtual reality are now considered classic by scholars of interface and design, speaks of virtual reality as possessing qualities outside the ordinary. It offers alternative ways of experiencing space, time and the body and further extends the breakdown in mind-body duality that characterizes the new technologies in general. A “real” VR experience also includes interaction and agency. For Laurel, the nature of the experience, rather then on the technology, is key. Importantly, for Laurel, narrative plays an important role in shaping a satisfactory virtual experience. With many years of active participation in the “virtual world,” Laurel locates her VR talk within VR’s own traditions, that is, within a decade-and-a-half tradition of techno-wizardry, but argues for the importance of factors other than the technology itself as determinants of the virtual.
Links to Brenda Laurel’s writing on the virtual
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Computers as theater. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Links to Bertram (Chip) Bruce’s writing on the virtual
