Abstract
Contemporary virtual reality is often discussed more in terms of popular consumer hardware. If you mention “VR” to the average person, they’re going to picture someone donning goggles (and perhaps gloves). Yet the virtual we increasingly experience comes in many forms and is often more complex than wearable signifiers.
This three-volume collection of essays from Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press examines the virtual beyond the headset. Here you will find multiple, sometimes unexpected entry points to virtuality—theme parks, video games, gyms, pilgrimage sites, art installations, screens, drones, film, and even national identity.
Book One: When Worlds Collide
Book Two: The Myth of Total Virtuality
Book Three: Senses of Place and Space
What all these virtual interiorities share are compelling cultural perspectives on distinct moments of environmental collision and collusion, liminality, and shifting modes of inhabitation which challenge more conventional architectural conceptions of space.