Presentation and Discussion
Vanishing Point VR: The Modern Desire for Audiovisual Immersion
![GAMELAB Razer OSVR Open-Source Virtual Reality for Gaming © Maurizio Pesce](/resources/files/jpg624/razr_osvr-695x300-92dpi-formatkey-jpg-w320m.jpg)
A discussion and reception will follow the presentation
The term “Virtual Reality” (VR) was coined only quite recently; by Jaron Lanier, in the late 1980s. Then Timothy Leary famously spoke of immersive VR systems as “electronic LSD.” The desire to immerse – and lose – oneself in artificially created worlds is, however, as old as human civilization. Coming to terms with audiovisual immersion in digital culture thus seems to require, above all else, a historical point of view.
In his presentation, Gundolf S. Freyermuth will focus on the modern history of VR. In a first step, he will examine VR’s prehistory in analog media. This prehistory begins soon after the Renaissance with the opposition to the emerging modern image space and its detached – anti-immersive – window view, which would characterize not only perspectival painting, the picture frame stage, cinema, and television, but also the computer and its screen. In a second step, Gundolf will investigate VR’s history proper; the attempt to technologically overcome the window view started in the mid-20th century with digital graphics, Yvan Sutherland’s conception of an “ultimate display,” and the popular vision of an all-immersive “holodeck.”
If, however, VR is the vanishing point of modern audiovisuality, the fulfillment of century-old desires, then digital culture is confronted, once again, though on a very different level, with the dystopic allegory of Plato’s cave …
![Freyermuth Gundolf S. Freyermuth © © Gundolf S. Freyermuth Freyermuth](/resources/files/jpg626/freyermuth-pic-formatkey-jpg-default-mq.jpg)
$1 validated parking (for events only) on weekdays after 6:00 pm and all day on weekends in the Wilshire Courtyard West underground garage-P1.
Details
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
1901 W. 7th Str.
Suite A/B
Los Angeles, CA 90057
Language: English
Price: Free with RSVP via Eventbrite
+1.323.525.3388 info@losangeles.goethe.org