Overview
Offers the first dedicated analysis of VR aesthetics from the position of screen studies
Combines author experiences and scholars to illustrate a sensitivity to aesthetic detail
Draws upon VR technology to impact on video-art, human-computer interaction and more
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Virtual Realities presents a ground-breaking application of phenomenology as a critical method to explore the impact of immersive media. Specific case studies examine 360-degree documentary productions about trauma, virtual military simulations, VR exposure therapy for anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder, and the emerging debate about regulating violent content in immersive media gaming. By addressing these texts primarily as experiences, Virtual Realities deploys an analytic and critical methodology that is sensitive to the bodily and cognitive impact of immersive media, especially via the body of an appropriately attentive researcher-critic.
Virtual Realities provokes a rethinking of many of the taken-for-granted ideas and assumptions circulating in the field of immersive media. These include concepts of empathy, embodiment, the affective impact of textual and immersive properties on the users’ experience, as well as the “gee-whizz” mentality often associated with approaches to the medium. The case studies provide fresh engagement with immersive media such as cinematic VR at a time when dominant attitudes about the technology display an evangelical fascination with VR and other mixed realities as inexorably beneficial. Virtual Realities makes a compelling case for VR-phenomenology to be employed as a methodology by humanities scholars and also in cross-disciplinary applications of immersive media in fields such as psychology, human-computer interaction studies and the health sciences.Reviews
— Tom Garner, University of Portsmouth
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Stuart Marshall Bender is senior lecturer in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University. His research expertise in violent media aesthetics and emotional impact is the focus of multiple digital and immersive media productions, monographs, and journal articles.
Mick Broderick is adjunct professor of media and creative arts at Curtin University. He has produced over 100 scholarly works, including research monographs, edited books, journal articles, book chapters, curated exhibitions and digital media productions.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Virtual Realities
Book Subtitle: Case Studies in Immersion and Phenomenology
Authors: Stuart Marshall Bender, Mick Broderick
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82547-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-82546-1Published: 24 September 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-82549-2Published: 25 September 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-82547-8Published: 23 September 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 213
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 34 illustrations in colour
Topics: Culture and Technology, Film/TV Technology, Media and Communication, Digital/New Media