Virtual Reality: Venus Return or Vanishing Point

e 19941SAST SPECIAL SECTION INTRODUCTION VIRTUAL REALITY: VENUS RETURN OR VANISHING POINT Awareness requires a rupture with the worldwe takefor granted; then the old categories of experience arecalled into questionand revised. -Shoshana Zuboff [1] The design of such intimate technology is an aesthetic issueas much as an engineering one. Wemust recognize this if weareto understand and choose what webecome as a resultof what wehave made. -Myron Krueger [2] The potential ofvirtual reality technology to free us from the constraints of time and space appeals to a human longing for' transcendence. We want to experience other circumstances without any real threat of danger. We want to be gods, to be able to change shape and form at will. Virtual reality assures us that we can-that we can reach the sun without melting our wings. Although virtual reality will never be able to fulfill this promise, the artists in this special section of Leonardoare not discouraged. On the contrary, they seem emboldened by the paradox. They have transmuted ideal possibility into individual vision. However, while they are interested in engendering a humanistic view of technology, the sinister aspects ofvirtual reality are not ignored in their discussions. I chose "Virtual Reality: Venus Return or Vanishing Point" as a title for this special section in order to express this tension. "Venus Return" is a medical term for blood being pumped back to the heart: an apt metaphor for the view that technology needs to support life-affirming activities. The mythological connotation also intimates a growing acceptance, not yet fully evident in the marketplace , ofa more lyrical approach to virtual reality art and entertainment. "Vanishing Point" suggests the darker side ofvirtual reality: isolation verging on annihilation of the body. The connotation of anxiety is also appropriate, given the term's allusion to the introduction of "perspective" in Western painting and the attendant shift in world view. Many recent discussions ofvirtual reality have revolved around the technology used. I have chosen in this special section to include authors whose work investigates the philosophical implications ofvirtual reality, thereby expanding the definition to include more than data glove and headset experiences. The cross-fertilization of ideas is an important component in the evolution of any technology or art form. Authors in this issue approach the field enhanced by their backgrounds in other disciplines . In helping us contextualize virtual reality, these artists enable us to see its potential. Eric Darton begins the section with a "tour" of his fable, Free City and theArt of Memory, set in the mid-seventeenth century. One of the oldest forms ofvirtual reality-a rhetorical device originating in Greece of the fourth century B.C. called the "Art of Memory"-is featured in this tale. Darton's comments on his role as author/creator of virtual worlds enriches our understanding of "the relationship between artificial reality, history and fiction." Toni Dove explores immersion in narrative space from another perspective. Her "theater without actors" engages the audience in environments that are based on flow rather than on cinematic cuts. Dove discusses her extensive work in this arena, concluding with a description of her collaborative virtual reality installation, TheArcheology of a MotherTongue, created at the Banff Center for the Arts with Canadian playwright Michael Mackenzie. "As artists working in the theater ... we do not believe in goggles." Nai Wai Hsu and his theater group, Wan Shi, based in Taiwan, have exemplified this stance in their recent theater pieces incorporating virtual reality. In these plays, based on ancient Chinese myths about the universal themes of love, betrayal, death and rebirth, "the performers and audience can 'interact' with the setting or can even change the entire environment." Marianne Petit describes her multisensory piece, The Mutant Gene and Tainted Kool-Aid Sideshow, and her role as the audience's shamanic guide through altered realities where "boundaries between environmental and psychological states are disrupted" and "issues of normality" are explored in a Janus-faced, hallucinatory experience of revelry and dirges. LEONARDO, Vol. 27, No.4, pp. 277-278, 1994 277 Dan O'Sullivan closes the section with his depiction of his interactive piece, Mirror Play, produced for Apple Computer, as well as three interactive works seen on cable television...