Digital virtuality in the age of advanced digital technology

photography, cinema…), to the advantage of presentation, of a paradoxical presence, the long-

distance telepresence of the object or being which provides their very existence, here and now.” (Virilio, 1994, p.63 The Vision Machine)

Virtuality in the age of information technologies, mediated by haptic technologies and advanced

computers has become an automated perception or machine–like perception. (Virilio, 1994). Brain

activity is substituted by media. In this sense, to Virilio, the distinction between reality and virtual what

makes reality is the way we perceive things, and as consequence the machine itself may generated

realitites, and things perceived through the machine can be defined as virtually real. In the newly virtual

interaction, dictated by machine, Virilio found the disappearance of body and location and the

substitution by virtual images and networks. In this sense virtuality takes overcomes materiality.

With highly sophisticated technology and the improvement of computer performance, virtual reality is

becoming capable of replacing actual space and object, simulating them at best. In this sense, reality is

being recreated artificially simulating the physical environment with the aim to create comfortable

interaction. Moreover, Baudrillard (1981) sustain that virtual reality is not simply the reproduction or

simulation of existing reality, but it can also provide space for invention, modification and the new reality

can result as fake. This ability to retouch or reinvent the world artificially without losing its originality is

defined as “hypereality” by Baudrillard.

Baudrillard reality is created by simulactra, or simulation of fake images, objects, and events as they

were taking place in a physical form. In this sense reality ceased to exist as a concrete physical form and

was replaced by fake reality or hyperreality. While Virilio sustain that reality change because of new

forms of perception, which make us reinterpret reality through mediated vision, as an automated

virtually different from the factual, Baudrillard added a further dimension of reality sustaining claiming

that what changes is the content and meaning, and that there is no direct relation between reality and

simulation. This contrasts with Plato's belief that ideas are superior to reality, and in his view, reflection

is not directly related to the real.

Digital virtuality in the age of advanced digital technology.

With the advancement of digital and information technology, the term "virtual" has come to signify first

"simulated," and it has become an alternate expression of the real. Shield () argues that virtual reality

uses technology to replicate reality and to test real conditions avoiding the normal risk. Technology 30

attempts to replicate sensory information of the physical world and provide better control on it, by

building and “information-world” based on the real or “digital twins”. In this case the digital twin exceeds and upgradesthe real.

In her essay "Embodied Virtuality," Katherine Hayles (1999) defined the virtual as a duality of material

and information,

“The perception that material structures are interpenetrated with informational patterns.” (Hayles, 1999, p.6)

Michael Heim gives a wider perspective on virtuality in relation to information technology that is

increasingly impacting the contemporary culture.

“Virtual reality is a technology that convinces the participant that he or she is actually in another

place by substituting the primary sensory input with data received produced by a computer… when the virtual world becomes a workspace, and the user identifies with the virtual body and feels a sense of belonging to a virtual community.” (Heim,1998, p.221)

Heim considers virtual reality as a technology and outlines components of virtual reality in the age of

modern digital technology. Full-body immersion, simulation, interactivity, artificiality, telepresence, and

networked communications are some of them. (Tab.4)

DIGITAL VIRTUALITY

Virtual technologies

Material + Information

Immersion Simulation Interaction Telepresence Artificiality Network communication

Table 4 Aspects of virtuality in the age of advance information technology

To recapitulate, in the era of modern information technology, virtual space becomes digital virtuality. A

computer is used to develop and process objects and information. Users might immerse themselves and

engage with this world by using devices that allow them to connect to virtual reality.