Moving into View: Enacting Virtual Reality

Abstract

How do we perceive virtual reality? This simple question takes the reader on a journey into the physiology of perception, following cybernetic models that regard spatial perception as an activity that presupposes bodily motion. In this discussion, head-mounted displays (HMDs) are reconstructed not only as visual but also as relational devices, closer to cybernetic augmentation of the human body than to pictorial traditions. The condition of possibility of virtual reality, as embodied by HMDs, is reconstructed as the circular coupling of machine response to human action and perception, in contrast to perception of space through the eyes.

Keywords

• HMDs
• virtual reality
• cyberspace
• cybernetics
• inaction
• reference
• presence
• sensorimotor loops