Instrumental vision Woodcock, Rose 2013, Instrumental vision. In Bolt, Barbara and Barrett, Estelle (ed), Carnal knowledge : towards a new materialism through the arts, I.B.Tauris, London, England, pp.171-184. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Instrumental vision Author(s) Woodcock, Rose orcid.org/0000-0002-3629-3699 Title of book Carnal knowledge : towards a new materialism through the arts Editor(s) Bolt, Barbara Barrett, Estelle orcid.org/0000-0001-9112-249X Publication date 2013 Chapter number 12 Total chapters 14 Start page 171 End page 184 Total pages 14 Publisher I.B.Tauris Place of Publication London, England Keyword(s) aesthetics art history depiction pictures painting pictorial perception pictorial representation stereography stereo-immersive VR virtual reality virtual environment Summary This chapter interrogates stereo-immersive ‘virtual reality’ (VR), the technology that enables a perceiver to experience what it is like to be immersed in a simulated environment. While the simulation is powered by the “geometry engine” (Cutting, 1997: 31) associated with high-end computer imaging technology, the visual experience itself is powered by ordinary human vision: the vision system’s innate capacity to see “in 3D”. To understand and critically appraise stereo-immersive VR, we should study not its purported ‘virtuality’, but its specific visuality, because the ‘reality’ of a so-called ‘virtual environment’ is afforded by the stereoacuity of binocular vision itself. By way of such a critique of the visuality of stereo-immersive VR, this chapter suggests that we think about the ‘practice’ of vision, and consider on what basis vision can have its own ‘materiality’. Pictorial perception is proposed as an exemplary visual mode in which the possibilities of perception might emerge. Against the ‘possibilities’ of vision associated with pictures, the visuality of stereo-immersive VR emerges as a harnessing, or ‘instrumentalisation’ of vision’s innate capabilities. James J. Gibson’s ‘ecological’ approach to vision studies is referenced to show the degree to which developers of VR have sought — and succeeded — to mimic the ‘realness’ of ordinary perceptual reality. This raises a question concerning whether the success of stereo-immersive VR is simultaneously the source of its own perceptual redundancy: for to bring into being the perceptual basis of ordinary ‘real’ reality, is to return the perceiver to what is already familiar and known. ISBN 1780762658 9781780762654 Language eng Field of Research 190104 Visual Cultures Socio Economic Objective 970119 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of the Creative Arts and Writing HERDC Research category B1 Book chapter HERDC collection year 2012 Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30050595 Document type: Book Chapter Collection: School of Communication and Creative Arts   Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Sun, 17 Feb 2013, 08:36:51 EST Sun, 17 Feb 2013, 09:08:00 EST Mon, 18 Feb 2013, 14:47:58 EST Wed, 20 Feb 2013, 15:28:03 EST Fri, 22 Feb 2013, 14:45:46 EST Fri, 22 Feb 2013, 14:47:09 EST Fri, 30 Aug 2013, 10:52:20 EST Fri, 30 Aug 2013, 11:09:20 EST Wed, 04 Sep 2013, 15:36:53 EST Fri, 08 Aug 2014, 11:09:44 EST Tue, 05 Dec 2017, 12:39:01 EST Wed, 29 Aug 2018, 16:26:19 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 307 Abstract Views, 850 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Sun, 17 Feb 2013, 08:36:33 EST by Rosemary Woodcock

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