Virtual Reality & Reality
“VR is a machine,
that makes us more human.”
VR is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. [1]
It's a technology that transports people to another world that may be real or fictional by its creators. I would like to call the world of VR a constructed world. When you put on the VR device, you can immediately enter this constructed world.
The breakthrough significance of VR technology is that it allows people to "immerse themselves", which is the main different from any other technology. Your body is not in the VR world, but your spirit is.
For example, when you put on your VR device and watch the VR interactive film "Notes on Blindness - Into Darkness" based on the audio diary of the scholar John Hull, you can feel the importance of the sense of hearing in the world of the blind and also the loneliness and fear of blind people diving in the dark. As for, you can also feel the same feeling with VR glasses at the moment.
The BBC used VR technology to bring people back to the battlefield of the Easter Uprising that changed Irish history in 1916 -- cannons, rifles, people's screams and wails. Maybe you also can feel the war in the cinema, but at the moment, you are mentally in the war.
Artists and creators are constantly experimenting with this technology. They trust that VR can really strengthen the connection between people and let people have a more real resonance.
The ballet performance Firebire- La Peir uses VR technology bringing audience to the stage and let audience participate in the stage performance. VR connects the audience with art.
Clouds over Sidra uses the vr technology, bringing audience into the refugee camp where Sidra lives. John Hull took this film to the World Economic Forum. When the audience there watch this film, they will feel as if they are sitting next to Sidra, thus, they will be more sympathetic to Sidila's suffering and give her help. John Hull and his team are bringing this technology to more projects,then the connection between the rich and the poorwill be strengthen.
Affected by the pandemic, Broadway theaters were closed, and the audience was blocked at the entrance of the theater. Architect Brendan Bradley tried to create a stage in which it is entirely safe for actors to perform onstage together and audiences to attend with friends (even those with whom you’re not quarantined) sans masks or temperature checks; and it exists in virtual reality. [2]
I admit that VR can strengthen the connection between people - in the world of VR.
From another perspective, VR has distanced the relation between people in real life.
Don't you think that she looks funny when you're not in VR world with her?
In the movie Ready Player One, the hero's best friend is from the VR world, but they have never seen each other in real life. He and his real-life family and friends have only simple greetings and no other exchanges.
So does VR make people more human, or make people less human?
Reference:
[1] Virtally Reality. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
[2]Can This Game-Changing Innovation Get Live Theatre Back Before the Pandemic Ends?. RUTHIE FIERBERG, JULY 20, 2020.
Movies mention in the article:
