[-empyre-] immersion

["Joseph Nechvatal" <joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com>]

Dear Jun-Ann Lam, Patrick, and others,

I just want to take a moment to comment on the immersion thread. When you 
say, Jun-Ann, that "There are different types of immersions?" I tend to 
disagree. There are different degrees.

When you say that "online text is far more immersive than anything I have 
"seen"" - I think we need to take a harder look at what we mean by the term 
immersion in terms of virtuality. I think that you are describing 
?absorption? ? not immersion (in the VR sense). For reasons of clarity, 
experiences of absorption must be separated out from experiences and 
expectations of total-immersion. Absorption is a necessary prerequisite of 
immersive presence. Certainly it is necessary to give ourselves up to an 
artwork and to forget other matters temporarily in order to receive an 
immersion of any particular emotional benefit. Also it is true that 
absorption and intense concentration are cardinal factors in inducing the 
sense of out-of-bodiness typical of total-immersion. But reading or viewing 
film, interacting with Multi-User Dungeons or MOOs (in their present state), 
or Internet Relay Chating (IRCs), however engrossing the activity can 
become, is by my terms non (or only very partially) immersive in that the 
activity is primarily frontal, involving a centrally directed concentration 
of sight.

Indeed U. S. Army researchers flatly state that total-immersion in a VR 
world "is not like being immersed in a book or a good movie" and that "it 
appears to be more like remembering your dreams". (Psotka & Davison, 1996)  
Loss of self-consciousness when watching standard television programs, 
video, or a staged performance is equally non (or only slightly at best) 
immersive.

In my view one of the most important characteristics of immersion is a sense 
of total enshrouding closure in the visual and audio environmental field. 
This definition counters that offered by Ken Pimentel and Kevin Teixeira 
who, in their book Virtual Reality: Through the New Looking Glass, state 
that the feeling of being immersed in a computer-generated world involves 
the same spontaneous substitution involved in suspending disbelief for an 
interval of time as "when you get wrapped up in a good novel or become 
absorbed in playing a computer game". (Pimentel & Teixeira, p. 15) Though I 
agree with the "suspending disbelief " component, I do not agree with their 
reading example and I believe that my definition of total-immersion is more 
specific and accurate than theirs as it insists upon the importance of 
macro-perception and an encompassing total visual field (given individual 
measures of susceptibility and a measure of depth and complexity of the 
visual data-field). Once this distinction has been made it becomes easier to 
trace various forms and levels of artistic immersive intent back through 
history and prehistory, always bearing in mind that the intention and ideal 
of encasing total-immersion has changed radically as simulacra technology 
changes.

It is art's feeling for opulent fulfilment delivered through atmosphere, an 
immersive viractual atmosphere which embraces us, which is what separates 
out artistic immersive events, ideals and intents from ordinary immersive 
acts, such as the entering of each and every room, bed, and bath. Naturally 
even this distinction evokes thought-provoking philosophical questions 
concerning the relationship between art and life, a distinction which much 
late-20th century vanguard art has called into question.

As for when you say "? in the visually immersive experience, where is the 
discussion of what the eye candy does or fails to do to your mind?" - You 
can now download a PDF "Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances : A Study of 
the Affinity Between Artistic Ideologies Based in Virtual Reality  and 
Previous Immersive Idioms" at: 
http://www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/ideals.htm if you wish. I deal with 
that extensively.


Telepresently Yours,
Joseph Nechvatal

http://www.nechvatal.net


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