The 2 (And Thousand) Faces Of The Virtual

A summary of:
Ryan, M.-L. (2001). Narrative every bit Virtual Reality: Immersion in addition to Interactivity inwards Literature in addition to Electronic Media. The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore.
Chapter 1 – The Two (and Thousand) Faces of the Virtual

In this chapter, Ryan explicates the divergence betwixt virtual every bit illusion (drawing on Baudrillard) in addition to virtual every bit potential (drawing on Lévy).

Baudrillard’s term was “simulacrum”, which every bit explained past times Ryan, “is non the dynamic picture of an active process, every bit are figurer simulations, but a mechanically produced, in addition to hence passively obtained, duplication whose solely constituent is to hand every bit that which it is not: ‘To copy is to feign to conduct keep what 1 doesn’t have’…. Baudrillard envisions contemporary civilization every bit a fatal attraction toward simulacra” (29). This seems to jive amongst Lanier’s criticism of the finish of VR (which I recall he after abandoned for his ain attraction to the simulacra of fifty-fifty cooler VR technology). We practice seem drawn to things-that-are-like-other-things. But this has ever been the case, Ryan points out. It is non unique to the technological age, though it may survive enabled to a greater marking past times it.

For Baudrillard, this fatal attraction represented a threat: “With the Virtual, nosotros come inwards non solely upon the era of the liquidation of the Real in addition to Referential, but that of the extermination of the Other. / It is the equivalent of an ethnic cleansing which would non precisely behave on item populations but unrelentingly pursue all forms of otherness. / The otherness… / Of the basis – dispelled past times Virtual Reality. (Perfect Crime, 109)” (30). But 1 could critique this past times disceptation that all thinking activity requires an deed of simulacrum: “…meaning is a rational simulacrum of things. Disarming the other of its otherness past times representing it in addition to edifice ‘realities’ every bit worlds to inhabit are 1 in addition to the same thing. It is precisely thinking” (35). Furthermore, simulacrum is an integral element of mystical or spiritual experience: “We know that this ‘other’ existent exists, in addition to oftentimes nosotros butt into it, but nosotros practice non alive inwards it, except peradventure inwards to a greater extent than or less moments of thoroughly private in addition to nearly mystical experience, because the human hear is an indefatigable fabricator of meaning, in addition to important is a rational simulacrum of things” (35).

But Baudrillard hits upon the same Foucauldian criticism of the illusory nature of our freedom, this fourth dimension made possible past times the mesmerizing nature of simulacrum: “…it is a simulacrum of activity that conceals the key passivity of the user, precisely every bit the basis exterior prisons is for Baudrillard a simulacrum of liberty that conceals the fundamentally carceral nature of lodge (‘Precession,’ 12)” (31). And furthermore, the to a greater extent than insidious consequence of simulacra is the way they disempower us past times causing us to drib dead disillusioned past times the whole world: “[Baurdillard:] ’The illusion of the world… is volatilized inwards psychosensorial telereality, inwards all these sophisticated technologies which transfer us to the virtual, to the opposite of illusion: to radical disillusion. (27)’”

Over time, Baudrillard began to purpose the price simulacra in addition to virtual reality interchangeably. Meanwhile, on the other hand, in that place is a to a greater extent than cheery agreement of the virtual posited past times Lévy. He argues instead that virtual reality does non inwards whatsoever way weaken the real: [Lévy, Qu’est-ce que le virtuel] “The virtual is past times no way the opposite of the real. On the contrary, it is a fecund in addition to powerful way of existence that expands the procedure of creation, opens upwardly the future, injects a nub of important beneath the cliche of immediate physical presence. (16)” (35)

Ryan’s indicate is non a judgment close the relative merits of either thought of virtual reality in addition to so much every bit it is that nosotros conduct keep ever done it: “In our dealing amongst the virtual, nosotros are doing what mankind has ever done, solely to a greater extent than powerfully, consciously, in addition to systematically…. If nosotros alive a ‘virtual condition,’ every bit N. Katherine Hayles has suggested (How We Became Posthuman, 18), it is non because nosotros are condemned to the mistaken but because nosotros conduct keep learned to live, work, in addition to play amongst the fluid, the open, the potential” (37). This, she suggests, derives from a linguistic imperative: “Language originates inwards a similar require to overstep the particular. The creation of a organisation of reusable linguistic types (or langue) our of an private or communal sense of the basis is a virtualizing procedure of generalization in addition to conceptualization” (38). In other words, linguistic communication itself is virtualization of a kind. So is music: “The consequence of music, according to Langer, is to practice a ‘virtual time’ that differs from what may survive called ‘clock-time’ or ‘objective time’ inwards that it gives marking to the succession of moments in addition to turns its ain passing – transfigured every bit durée – into sensory perception” (42-3). So are novels. So is television. Etc..

I hasten to add together that spell I recall it is of import for us to realize that virtualization is non unique to our time, nosotros cannot lose sight of what is unique close our time, namely the increasing value of cognition inwards our lodge (38) in addition to the specific way inwards which nosotros conduct keep designed our virtualizations to fit our evolving worldview, i.e. the Internet every bit it is now. To tell that nosotros conduct keep ever – in addition to volition ever – virtualize our basis is non to tell that the Internet every bit it exists right away is inevitable, or inwards other words, that our Internet takes an inevitable form.

The spirit of this mass is really similar to Wertheim’s, in addition to Ryan has drawn significantly from Wertheim’s work. But she fills inwards a gap ignored past times Wertheim, i.e. the nascency of the novel every bit a novel sort of space: “As a existent object inscribed inwards infinite in addition to time, the travel of fine art is in the world, but every bit a virtual object that creates its ain infinite in addition to time, it is non of the world” (42). The transformation of the novel provides insight into the changing worldview of which it is a part, in addition to hence its expressions (I mightiness tell ‘symptoms’) are the same amongst those of technology. For example, our worldview precludes why questions; nosotros pattern technologies because nosotros can, in addition to nosotros practice texts because nosotros can: “The mental attitude promoted past times the electronic reading machine is no longer ‘What should I practice amongst texts?’ but ‘What can I practice amongst them’” (47)? And precisely every bit Carr argues that the Internet is turning us into ‘pancake people’, Ryan argues that, “The reader produced past times the electronic reading machine volition hence survive to a greater extent than inclined to graze at the surface of texts than to immerse himself inwards a textual basis or to probe the hear of an author…. The non-holistic way encouraged past times the electronic reading machine tends to polarize the mental attitude of the reader inwards 2 directions: reading becomes much to a greater extent than utilitarian, or much to a greater extent than serendipitous, depending on whether the user treats the textual database every bit what Gilles Deleuze in addition to Félix Guattari (A Thousand Plateaus) telephone phone a striated space, to survive traversed to acquire somewhere, or every bit a shine space, to survive explored for the pleasance of the journeying in addition to for the discoveries to survive made along the way” (47). Our weakness is existence our inability to build holistic meaning; in addition to our cherished value is to a greater extent than in addition to to a greater extent than becoming getting somewhere every bit fast every bit possible.

Sometimes it’s easier to come upwardly at the work from to a greater extent than or less other angle. It’s hard to run across the technological mindset because it appears invisible every bit “second nature.” One way to defamiliarize this thinking is to await to other areas that may shed calorie-free on this mindset. The ground I discovery this mass helpful is because I tin purpose trends inwards fine art in addition to literature every bit windows into our technological thinking. Ultimately, this is the approach I programme to accept inwards the PhD, drawing on all sorts of fine art theory.