New theories of reality and virtuality in Virilio and Baudrillard

LATENT (ABSTRACT) SUBSTANCE Possible/

Potential

EVENT

Virtual

Realisation Potentialization Actualisation Virtualisation MANIFESTATION (CONCRETE)

Real

Actual

Table 3 Levy’s modes of existence and their transformation processes (Levy, 1999)

He distinguishes two types of virtual transformation: actualization and virtualization (Levy, 1999).

Actualization is the process of transforming the virtual (as an idea or abstract thing) into concrete form

and new quality. Virtualization is defined as the reverse journey from the actual to the virtual, which

transforms an entity by redefining the problem to design a new solution. It goes back to the elements

that inspire our acts. In this sense, virtualization was seen as a means of creation and is significant to this

study in the process of creating realities.

New theories of reality and virtuality in Virilio and Baudrillard

Virtual reality is “a digital environment generated by a computer that can be interactively

experienced as if this environment were real” (Jerald,J. 2015, p.9)

Before the advent of information technology, communication was direct and visceral. Hereafter,

communication became intermediate, rather than directly resulting in a change at the level of

perception, having on one side the illusion of non-intermediation, and on the other having the actual

feeling of the reality, as if they were truly present and immersed in that reality.

In this evolving reality perception, Paul Virilio develops a new theory of reality and virtuality in his book

"The Vision Machine." According to Virilio, technical advancement and the widespread use of computers

was a watershed moment that influenced a shift in how we view the world. The shift in perception

occurred when the reality or images we see and perceive as instant reality became not merely

reproducible, as in the invention of photography, but also displayed, reinvented, and simulated in real-

time.

“The paradoxical logic emerges when the real-time image dominates the thing represented, real

time subsequently prevailing over real space, virtuality dominating actuality and turning the very

concept of reality on its head. Whence the crisis in traditional forms of representation (graphics,