Understanding the Virtual in Reality

Where do you draw the line between reality and the virtual? Or perhaps the question is really whether or not you even can draw a line between the two any more.

On the one hand, when I think of the virtual I imagine whole other worlds. Virtual reality games like World of Warcraft and Second Life are what immediately come to mind and in these contexts, I do think there is an argument to be made for their separation or disassociation with what we might perceive as reality. In these virtual ‘worlds’, the parameters are quite easily defined between what we might consider the ‘real’ physical world and the ‘virtual’ in a traditional sense and I would argue that as a result, such media have relatively little impact on our perception of the ‘real world’.

However the notion of the virtual in media studies is hardly limited to these manifestations. If the virtual overlaps with the ‘real world’, as is the case with augmented reality media, these parameters obviously become less clear. As Chris Grayson illustrates in his Augmented Reality Overview (1), this notion of the virtual has the potential to be much more ingrained in our mediated experience of the world around us than I would have initially thought. Considering the virtual as intertwined with the physical world, as is the case in the numerous examples Grayson offers, these media can be seen to project and create meaning in the actual rather than virtual worlds. I found the iPhone app; SekaiCamera (2) fascinating, particularly in that it illustrates the potential for these augmented media to become ingrained in our daily interaction with our own physical worlds on such a basic and comprehensive level. Sure, the app is quite limited in its application at this point (the confined environment of a Japanese museum exhibit is hardly indicative of a widespread application of the technology), but there is definitely potential there - that is if such augmented reality media as the SekaiCamera where to become more widely implemented and 'air tags' where to become ubiquitous.

Chris Grayson writes that;

“When it comes to Virtual Reality, I’ve had a mantra that none of this will really take off until we’re in there versus looking at there.” (3)

And we seem to be crossing over into this realm of being ‘in there’. We are seeing the projection of the virtual into the actual reality of our lives and our worlds on an ever increasing scale; a sort of blurring of the lines between the real and the virtual, making it much more difficult to differentiate between the two. In this light it seems that the two can no longer be thought of as separate, but rather that the virtual is as much a part of our experience of what we know as reality as the physical world itself.

References:

1. Grayson, Chris (2009) ‘Augmented Reality Overview’, GigantiCo <http://gigantico.squarespace.com/336554365346/2009/6/23/augmented-reality-overview.html>
2. ibid 
3. ibid