Virtual Reality, “…an immersive and interactive digital simulation that provides an experience of embodied presence in another world,” is not simply the purvey of VR-goggled video game enthusiasts. It comes in my gradations, from a tool like the stereoscope popular in the 19th century or even as far back in understanding as Plato’s influential Allegory of the Cave analysis. The conceptual popularity of virtual reality (VR) has only grown as technological capabilities have increased to develop the possibilities further. But, VR seems to divide many: is it cause for celebration in how it might help society, or is it a tool that will exacerbate existing social ills further?
Beyond those who find the VR-visual experience physically dizzying, there are good reasons to be concerned over other ill effects. Already, the debate over the harms of screen-time on children are serious enough that, ironically, many of the tech-makers of VR were the first to not allow their own children to partake in even TV watching up to a certain age. Scaled up, it is not inconceivable to imagine how easily the sensory gratification of more comprehensive VR experiences can make slaves of us all, from Brave New World to Black Mirror. While digital humanities projects such as Pure Land AR and Traveling While Black show educational uses with VR to expose others to import art and history, theater and VR scholar Robert Cable warns: “At what point does the consumption of not just imagery but full-scale experience become more about thrill than enlightenment, more about exoticism than education? This is the kind of question we need to bring to bear on a medium that offers a sense of “being there” that goes far beyond the capacities of photography or film.”
At the same time, Cable and others scholars show how VR has helped some individuals see things in a way that enhances their understanding, noting “Look, one of the functions of VR is to aid us in seeing the world around us with new eyes. And one of the great potencies of the arts is that they can take something we regard as simply part of the natural background of our lives, something that we don’t reflect upon or think about or maybe even notice, and show it to us in a new light.” Sarah Kenderine goes further, arguing that virtual reality constructs in myriad forms have contributed to an entire embodiment theory, which “…attempt to understand the mind as a set of physical processes derived from the brain and body of a human, that ultimately serve his or her action in the physical world.” Embodiment theory has wide ranging applications across disciplines all centering back to unraveling the human mind and how we enhance it on some level. The body is the learning path to the mind; to have intense sensory experiences, is to learn. While this may sounds like the realm of academic exploration, institutions as established as the Department of Defense have seen the efficacy in VR for recruiting and training soldiers. In some ways, it makes perfect sense – the VR video games many young men and women have already grown up playing, makes moving into the military sphere far more seamless than expected in terms of muscle memory and instincts. However, the question will still remain: does this make the Department of Defense cutting edge in its application of embodiment theory? Or does it paint them as manipulative in the manner that many institutions might create business for itself by supporting controversial habits to begin with?
Works Cited:
Cable, Robert. “What Is Virtual Reality?” Text. Stanford Humanities, February 8, 2019. https://shc.stanford.edu/news/stories/what-virtual-reality.
Kenerdine, Sarah. “Embodiment, Entanglement, and Immersion in Cultural Heritage.” A New Companion to Digital Humanities, First Edition. Edited by Susan schreibman, Ray Siemans, and John Unsworth. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: 2016.