In this dissertation, I aim to expose the variety of impacts that Virtual Reality will have on the terms and conventions of visual culture, as well as the human ecology.
Beginning with my experience of Virtual reality I aim to highlight the impacts that the virtual experience has on the body and mind of its users. By exploring the existing theoretical understanding of visual culture, I hope to highlight the novelty of virtual reality content, how it differs but also how it may relate in order to better understand the way that it targets the user to create a unique experience. While also using Virtual reality to further the debate and explore how visual, visual media really is, addressing the likes of Nicholas Mirzoeff and W.J.T Mitchell. with a focus point on understanding the perceptual relationship between visual culture and the mind. Therefore, leads to the question of the ‘real’. The idea of the world as a simulation has been explored and manipulated by many different art forms, primarily in dystopian fiction in order to explore our understanding of our existence. Nevertheless, Virtual reality brings simulation and the idea of the ‘real’ to the forefront with a new myriad of possibilities and levels of immersion. Urging me to conclude with a consideration of the effect that virtual reality may have on the way we navigate visual culture and the ‘real’ world.
As we are situated at the beginning of a new chapter for visual culture, virtual reality provides the tools and examples to emphasise existing ideas, that visual culture terms and conventions need to adapt. Not simply just because new technologies such as virtual reality are creating new levels of immersion and experience but also adapting the way we understand old, existing, and future visual art forms.
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