Bolter and Grusin quote Jaron Lanier and Meredith Bricken about becoming a T-rex or a DNA molecule via virtual reality, or about moving back and forth to the rhythm of a song, or about becoming a droplet in the rain or the river (p. 15). It’s hard to read this passage without imagining this as a recreation of an LSD trip, perhaps without the removal of the experimenter’s ego, which would certainly act as a mediator of the experience.
While they write that the VR experience would “diminish and ultimately… deny the mediating presence of the computer and its interface” (p. 16), I haven’t yet seen this in action, even though this article is at least 19 years old. Even current VR headsets are mediated by UI designers, who continually refine the behavior of the environment to react to the users demands. A UI designer I heard recently remarked that she watched headset users unintentionally poking at their monitors and knocking them over. She redesigned the environment to allow users to point to controls or objects which would then zoom to the user for them to select and control without reaching outstretched arms further into their physical environment.
Another example: I used an Oculus to explore a spaceship designed by some students in a prison education class. It was very cool, but the environment was limited interactively in the same way that older first-person shooters like Doom were, and most immersive games still are. Movements and actions are limited and all objects that appear may not be interactive. The interactivity is limited by the system resources and the ability and time constraints of the designer. System glitches like clipping may reveal an oversight over the developer.
My point: UI design is very necessary and all environments are mediated. We are not yet at a point when the medium is transparent.
The section on hypermediacy of European cathedrals mentions that altarpieces “juxtaposed media [and]... embodied contradictory spatial logics” (p. 28). I propose that these features also embodied contradictory spiritual spaces, which a parishioner would’ve experienced as some spaces that were inaccessible but for the priest.
Ref:
Bolter, Jay and Richard Grusin. “Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation.” Remediation. MIT Press, 2000.
While they write that the VR experience would “diminish and ultimately… deny the mediating presence of the computer and its interface” (p. 16), I haven’t yet seen this in action, even though this article is at least 19 years old. Even current VR headsets are mediated by UI designers, who continually refine the behavior of the environment to react to the users demands. A UI designer I heard recently remarked that she watched headset users unintentionally poking at their monitors and knocking them over. She redesigned the environment to allow users to point to controls or objects which would then zoom to the user for them to select and control without reaching outstretched arms further into their physical environment.
Another example: I used an Oculus to explore a spaceship designed by some students in a prison education class. It was very cool, but the environment was limited interactively in the same way that older first-person shooters like Doom were, and most immersive games still are. Movements and actions are limited and all objects that appear may not be interactive. The interactivity is limited by the system resources and the ability and time constraints of the designer. System glitches like clipping may reveal an oversight over the developer.
My point: UI design is very necessary and all environments are mediated. We are not yet at a point when the medium is transparent.
The section on hypermediacy of European cathedrals mentions that altarpieces “juxtaposed media [and]... embodied contradictory spatial logics” (p. 28). I propose that these features also embodied contradictory spiritual spaces, which a parishioner would’ve experienced as some spaces that were inaccessible but for the priest.
Ref:
Bolter, Jay and Richard Grusin. “Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation.” Remediation. MIT Press, 2000.
