Opponents of Digital Immersion. Analysis of Current Technological And Perceptual Obstacles for VR, AR, Mr, Xr on the Example Of The Installation Entitled ‘Modelling Reality’

Abstract

Nowadays digital worlds operate on a conventionality and require the user to constantly “actively believe” in the presented reality. The article presents conclusions from the creation and displaying of the MR artistic installation entitled “Reality Mock-ups”. On its basis, it presents current technical and perceptual problems resulting from attempts to combine virtual and physical reality (as VR, AR, MR, XR): functioning of digital hands, parallax adjustment, movements of objects, optical deformations, the moment of connecting and switching between realities, combined communication, physiological responses. These are factors that disrupt immersion and/or the sense of “presence”, causing the “detachment” of the digital world from the physical one. Their analysis lets to verify popular beliefs about the current and future functioning of digital worlds, reveals our level of technological advancement and indicates areas that turn out not to meet the ideas and expectations created in pop culture.

Keywords

• immersion
• presence
• senses
• digital world
• virtual reality (vr)
• metaverse
• distractors