Alternative Worlds – VR without Headsets
Margherita Fontana
research: Seminar
Alternative Worlds – VR without Headsets
Margherita Fontana
People familiar with Virtual Reality are used to the idea that VR is typically accessed through a headset, ranging from lighter, wireless options to bulkier, wired ones, or even standalone devices. Despite these differences, they all function as compact screens positioned in front of the user's eyes, completely immersing their field of vision. While VR can facilitate shared experiences in multiplayer environments, the use of headsets tends to create a sense of isolation, making VR a solitary, sometimes uncomfortable endeavour. This tendency toward solitary engagement has prompted the development of alternative approaches throughout the history of VR devices. In particular, introduced in 1991, the CAVE aims to construct virtual reality experiences around the user through projections, without confining them within a helmet. However, I argue that this divergent trajectory is not limited to explicit forms of VR, but extends to spaces whose historical and ideological narratives intersect with VR discourses. One such architectural trope, the geodesic dome, will be the focus of this seminar. The ideology underlying geodesic domes is intimately tied to the countercultural roots from which VR emerged. In my view, geodesic domes, along with bunkers, underground dwellings, dark ride attractions, and even prehistoric caves – on which the CAVE models its acronym – share a common aspiration: transcending mere habitability or functionality, these spaces represent the tangible realization of a possibility, a simulation of a potentiality. In two words, they are factually virtual realities.
Biography
Margherita Fontana
Margherita Fontana is a Ph.D. in Visual and Media Studies (2022, IULM University of Milan). Her doctoral dissertation deals with the problematic issue of primitivism in American contemporary art, as seen from a feminist-engaged point of view. Her main fields of interest are the anthropology of images and the political and social connotations of artistic acts. She worked on the relationship between some relevant moments of contemporary American art history and esthetics. In particular, she studied the philosophical implications of Lucy Lippard’s thought and art criticism. In the ERC project AN-ICON, she examines the American milieu of emersion of VR, as linked to the psychedelic and sci-fi culture and the paleocybernetic trail of virtual fascinations on prehistoric caves
research: seminar
Alternative Worlds – VR without Headsets
Margherita Fontana
People familiar with Virtual Reality are used to the idea that VR is typically accessed through a headset, ranging from lighter, wireless options to bulkier, wired ones, or even standalone devices. Despite these differences, they all function as compact screens positioned in front of the user's eyes, completely immersing their field of vision. While VR can facilitate shared experiences in multiplayer environments, the use of headsets tends to create a sense of isolation, making VR a solitary, sometimes uncomfortable endeavour. This tendency toward solitary engagement has prompted the development of alternative approaches throughout the history of VR devices. In particular, introduced in 1991, the CAVE aims to construct virtual reality experiences around the user through projections, without confining them within a helmet. However, I argue that this divergent trajectory is not limited to explicit forms of VR, but extends to spaces whose historical and ideological narratives intersect with VR discourses. One such architectural trope, the geodesic dome, will be the focus of this seminar. The ideology underlying geodesic domes is intimately tied to the countercultural roots from which VR emerged. In my view, geodesic domes, along with bunkers, underground dwellings, dark ride attractions, and even prehistoric caves – on which the CAVE models its acronym – share a common aspiration: transcending mere habitability or functionality, these spaces represent the tangible realization of a possibility, a simulation of a potentiality. In two words, they are factually virtual realities.