Can I read Through the Screen Door: Virtual Reality Experiences on EtoBox?

Through the Screen Door: Virtual Reality Experiences by Dooley Murphy is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Through the Screen Door: Virtual Reality Experiences about?

Virtual reality (VR) art and entertainment are flourishing. Between the extremes of ‘film-like’ and ‘game-like,’ VR lies the catch-all category ‘VR experiences’: A loose-knit grouping that spans all manner of narrative and non-narrative content. Discussions of VR experiences typically privilege immersion and agency. It’s said that immersion is best induced by offering the participant opportunities to perform virtual actions (i.e., exercise virtual agency) and shape a story’s course. Looking to develop this line of thinking, the thesis first asks, ‘how are participants guided in VR experiences?’, and argues that while agency is indeed important, a neglected, corresponding phenomenon is agency’s opposite number: Patiency, or the embodied feeling of being acted upon. Sensations of patiency in VR can be just as engrossing as exercises of agency. Consider vertigo, ‘butterflies’, startles, or the weird feeling of having your personal space invaded by lifelike virtual humans. The thesis employs formal, conceptual, and textual analyses in working towards an account of how patiency, like agency, can be used to guide and beguile VR participants. Part one, FORM, first addresses some design co

Author

Dooley Murphy

Publisher

University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Communication

Published

2021

Language

EN