About Virtual Experience. Some questions 1

The article addresses the relationship between virtual and actual reality as the external world of users. The objective is to study the relationship between two realities: virtual reality and actual reality in their ontological uniqueness and distinctness. The set objective implies that virtual reality should be seen as a specific conditional reality. The applied methodological principle incorporates concepts of ontological/ functional/ artistic conditionalities. The development of modern VR technology contributing to the formation of cyberculture is shown to bring the functional conditionality to the forefront, putting into action and emphasizing the leading part of an individual, the importance of his or her self-subject position (as the Participant or the Observer) in social construction of reality. The specific nature of the boundaries of conditionality as well as their penetrability/ impenetrability (characterizing openness or closeness of realities) make it possible to draw a demarcation line between the actual reality and other realities. The comparative analysis given in the article revealed a number of distinctive features inherent in virtual realities. Due to these features, virtual realities can be differentiated both from the actual reality and the realities (mental, artistic) generally referred to as virtual by a number of scholars. As defined, the actual reality, as long as its social and regulatory pressure is imperative and unconditional, can compete with virtual realities, which, on the other hand, due to their interactivity can have such an impact on the actual reality that any concept of two autonomous worlds makes no sense.

2018

Azimuth. Philosophical Coordinates in Modern and Contemporary Age, 2022

The notion of ‘immersivity’ is a pivotal element in the description of tech­nologically mediated experience, designating an inherent quality of objects, spaces and more generally situations able to produce an impression of im­mersion. Different from the notion of ‘immersion’ itself – which describes «a process of reception» focusing on sensations and feelings of the subject of experience – «immersivity designates a process of production» (Freitag et alii, 2020). The issue pays a special attention to the conditions of possibility, both material and immaterial, of immersive experiences: tech­nologies, environments, materials, practices, but also theoretical, ideological and political frames. At the same time, it aims at exploring some theoreti­cal questions that are still open in the debate on immersive experience, in the digital environments as well as in other contexts. In order to do so, different and complementary philosophical approaches to the question of immersivity are combined, coming from multiple philosophical disciplines, such as: aesthetics, material and critical historicism coupled with a genealogical approach, philosophical anthropology, phenomenology and post-phenomenology, cognitive science (4E cognition), and deconstructionism.

artecno.ucs.br

Based on a brief overview of the history of ontology and on some philosophical problems of virtual reality, a new approach to virtuality is proposed. To characterize the representational (information, cognitive, cultural, communication) technologies in the Internet age, I suggest that Aristotle’s dualistic ontological system (which distinguishes between actual and potential being) be complemented with a third form of being: virtuality. In the virtual form of being actuality and potentiality are inseparably intertwined. Virtuality is potentiality considered together with its actualization. In this view, virtuality is reality with a measure, a reality which has no absolute character, but which has a relative nature. This situation can remind us the emergence of probability in the 17th century: then the concept of certainty, now the concept of reality is reconsidered and relativized. Currently, in the descriptions of the world created by representational technologies, there are two coherent worldviews with different ontologies: the world is inhabited by (absolute) actual and (absolute) potential beings—or all the beings in the world are virtual.

Philosophies, 2022

The problem of aesthetic experience in a virtual environment could be reformulated as: what can we learn about aesthetics from the perspective of ‘aesthetic experience in virtual environments’, given the specific nature of such an environment? The discourse goes in circles, because it is always from theories elaborated in the field of the so-called ‘real’ that we develop the difference, but it is a process typically philosophical, that, on the other hand, can make sense only if it can be shown that the virtual is an existent being that has an ontological structure of its own. The ontology of this strange object–event, and of its relationship to space–time, must therefore be addressed: what are the conditions of identity for a virtual body? What are its limits? In what sense does it have borders? Also, its specific temporality and its connection to human and computer memories are arguable dimensions that deserve analysis, as they directly affect an ontology of the virtual body, the d...

In the framework of postmodern experience, the exponential growth and integration of new technologies in everyday life and communication has innovated the configuration of digital culture. Fields like art, cultural representation, cinema and games have been greatly affected by the use of mass digital media, as the dimensions of reality are expanded through the potentials of virtual world. Virtual reality involves digital products, 3d representations and multimedia applications that manage to expand the possibilities of each user and receive stimulus beyond the limitations of physical spacetime. The term virtual is standing not only for the form of the digital medium but also for all the possibilities enabled through the design and the scenario of virtual environments. The stimulus and experiences become available and shared at global level and the amount of possible activities done in specific space unities. Particularly, through the management of scenario and narration multimedia ontology is developed. By the term scenario, we don’t simply mean a time sequence or the narration of a story. It involves the composition of a complete concept with defined ontologies that specify the plot of multimedia applications. The postmodern plot of digital media may overcome the limitations of a linear presentation, providing navigation options that do not need to be predefined, simulating the complexity of real life. Furthermore, two projects are mentioned: The first one concerns a historical castle of Mytilene, represented at 3 different historical periods, and the second pertains to a discrete modern building in Athens, emphasizing at the alternative navigations provided to the user by the scenario of the digital work.

RSU International Research Conference 2016 , 2016

The concept of virtual is created most probably by the information and its processing patterns. It has become a very famous concept since the sixth decade of the 20th century due to the invention of the computer technology. Now it is familiar to us as online world. The whole world is a virtual reality and it has a long history. The concepts of virtual reality and the virtual environment are a psycho-social matter that directs to the perception and the physical world. All the perception involves information and signals present in the stimulus. But it depends on the previous knowledge, experience and expectations. The main aim of this research is to describe the philosophical and sociological aspects of the concept of virtual reality based on "presence" and "telepresence" generated by the natural and mediated environment. The main objective of this research is to describe the virtual environment and its influence on the programming of behavioral patterns and the thinking ways of the masses and how the virtual environment and its reality have manipulated masses in the social and cultural context of Sri Lanka. Research question is very important fact in this research. The following research question structured the research and managed to achieve the aims and objectives. How are the masses experiencing the mediated environment and how are they influencing on the socio-cultural changes of the social context of Sri Lanka? The research method applied in this study was based on phenomenological experiences of structuralism in order to analyze the data both qualitatively and quantitatively. I primarily rely on the ethnographic observation, technique of participant observation, technique of questionnaire, the technique of case study, etc. I observed the attitudinal aspects of the masses and study how they build their relationships with their relatives and with the other masses around them. The virtual environment of urban, rural and the estate sectors of Sri Lanka are growing rapidly. Internet cafes have been widely spread in Sri Lanka by the year 2015. It was found that, the most literate computer age group of Sri Lanka is 15-19 years. Due to these reasons, the computer literacy among the young masses of Sri Lanka is increasing considerably and its influence is very effective on the socio-cultural transformation. The research shows that the Creating Motivate Feelings (CMF = .000), Widening the Boundaries of Knowledge (WBK = .000), Increase the Sense of Time (IST = .000), Shift into Behavior of Fashion Culture (BFC = .000), etc of the masses of Sri Lanka have been changed into a virtual reality by the mediated environment. In conclusion, the man is stimulated by the information, energy and the multi-dimensional space time screen. This virtual environment has developed the organizational skills, identification skills and the skills of the interpretation. As the result of this, the young masses can understand and respond this environment. The epistemological analysis really clarifies the differences between these objective realities and the virtual realities. The philosophical analysis says that man's world is virtual and the world he lives in could arise from a simulation. So the virtual reality of the world cannot exist independently by itself. So it depends upon the process that is link with relevant matters. If that process stops then the virtual reality definitely ceases its existence. Accordingly, the concept of virtual reality is no longer a paradoxical topic.

Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe (eCAADe)

tive structures of perception and the cultural models involved in the process of understanding the reality. In the second section, as architects, we use to have "a global set of social and technical responsabilities" to organize the physical space, but now we must also be able to organize the "virtual space" obtained from a multidimensional set of computer simulations. There are certain features that can be used as "sensory parameters" when we are dealing with architectural design in the "virtual world", taking into consideration the differences between "inmersive virtual reality" and "non inmersive virtual reality" [2].Velez Jahn 99. In the appendix we present a summary of some conclusions based on a set of pedagogical applications analysing the positive and the negative consequences of working exclusively in a "virtual world".

Di-Egy Conference, Cairo, Egypt, 2013

Real time computer graphics and complex sensory input challenge past assumptions of highly constrained metaphors based on static imagery. Access to research and gaming interfaces have popularized the understanding of tracking technologies that tailor interaction to ambulatory displacement and dexterous handling of objects, expanding the realm of metaphors from visual to physical phenomena. But behavior and the mind have been studied far before there were real time computer graphics or digitally created synthetic environments. Dynamic relationships between environment, body, and thought are being dissected today by neuro-scientific research, and conversely, synthetic environments are being utilized to address psychological disorders. This paper examines research on scientific and philosophical fields that advance the definition of representation, from an image based realm as limited by previous popular media, to an understanding of action and immersion, where attention is activated by change, and rooted in the body. From this perspective, the advent of embodied representation may not be as much of a change of medium, but the perceptual relation with the medium. The medium being a created Umwelt, where the virtual world builds the mind through the body.