Virtual art: from illusion to immersion

Oliver Grau0262072416, 9780262072410, 9780585446790

Although many people view virtual reality as a totally new phenomenon, it has its foundations in an unrecognized history of immersive images. Indeed, the search for illusionary visual space can be traced back to antiquity. In this book, Oliver Grau shows how virtual art fits into the art history of illusion and immersion. He describes the metamorphosis of the concepts of art and the image and relates those concepts to interactive art, interface design, agents, telepresence, and image evolution. Grau retells art history as media history, helping us to understand the phenomenon of virtual reality beyond the hype.Grau shows how each epoch used the technical means available to produce maximum illusion. He discusses frescoes such as those in the Villa dei Misteri in Pompeii and the gardens of the Villa Livia near Primaporta, Renaissance and Baroque illusion spaces, and panoramas, which were the most developed form of illusion achieved through traditional methods of painting and the mass image medium before film. Through a detailed analysis of perhaps the most important German panorama, Anton von Werner’s 1883 The Battle of Sedan, Grau shows how immersion produced emotional responses. He traces immersive cinema through Cinerama, Sensorama, Expanded Cinema, 3-D, Omnimax and IMAX, and the head mounted display with its military origins. He also examines those characteristics of virtual reality that distinguish it from earlier forms of illusionary art. His analysis draws on the work of contemporary artists and groups ART+COM, Maurice Benayoun, Charlotte Davies, Monika Fleischmann, Ken Goldberg, Agnes Hegedues, Eduardo Kac, Knowbotic Research, Laurent Mignonneau, Michael Naimark,Simon Penny, Daniela Plewe, Paul Sermon, Jeffrey Shaw, Karl Sims, Christa Sommerer, and Wolfgang Strauss. Grau offers not just a history of illusionary space but also a theoretical framework for analyzing its phenomenologies, functions, and strategies throughout history and into the future.

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Table of contents :
@Team LiB……Page 0
Cover……Page 1
Contents……Page 6
Series Foreword……Page 9
Foreword……Page 12
Acknowledgments……Page 14
1
Introduction……Page 17
The Science of the Image……Page 26
Immersion……Page 28
2
Historic Spaces of I l l u s ion……Page 39
Immersive Image Strategies of the Classical World……Page 40
The Chambre du Cerf in the Papal Palace at Avignon……Page 48
In Rome on Mount Olympus: Baldassare Peruzzi’s
Sala delle Prospettive……Page 52
Immersion in Biblical Jerusalem: Gaudenzio Ferrari at Sacro Monte……Page 56
Baroque Ceiling Panoramas……Page 61
Viewing with Military Precision: The Birth of the Panorama……Page 67
Barker’s Invention: Developing the Space of Illusionistic
Landscapes……Page 71
Construction and Function of the Panorama……Page 73
The Panorama: A Controversial Medium circa 1800……Page 77
The Role of Economics in the International Expansion of the
Panorama……Page 80
3
The Panorama of the Battle of
Sedan: Obedience through
Presence……Page 105
The Battle in the Picture……Page 107
The Power of Illusion, Suggestion, and Immersion……Page 111
Anton von Werner: Artist and Power Player……Page 114
Political Objectives……Page 116
The Panorama Stock Exchange……Page 118
With Helmholtz’s Knowledge: ‘‘Democratic Perspective’’
versus ‘‘Soldiers’ Immersion’’……Page 120
Strategy and Work of the Panoramist……Page 128
L’Art Industriel……Page 133
The Rotunda……Page 137
4
Intermedia Stages of Virtual
Reality in the Twentieth Century:
Art as Inspiration of Evolving
Media……Page 155
Monet’s Water Lilies Panorama in Giverny……Page 156
Prampolini’s Futurist Polydimensional Scenospace……Page 158
Film: Visions of Extending the Cinema Screen and Beyond……Page 161
Highways and Byways to Virtual Reality: The ‘‘Ultimate’’ Union
with the Computer in the Image……Page 176
The Rhetoric of a New Dawn: The Californian Dream……Page 183
Virtual Reality in Its Military and Industrial Context……Page 184
Art and Media Evolution I……Page 188
5
Virtual Art—Digital! The Natural
Interface……Page 207
Charlotte Davies: Osmose……Page 208
The Suggestive Potential of the Interface……Page 213
Aesthetic Distance……Page 217
The Concept of ‘‘The Work’’ in Processual or Virtual Art……Page 219
6
Spaces of Knowledge……Page 227
Knowbotic Research (KR+cF): Dialogue with the Knowbotic South……Page 228
The Virtual Denkraum I: The Home of the Brain……Page 232
The Virtual Denkraum II: Memory Theater VRby Agnes Hegedues
(1997)……Page 246
Ultima Ratio: For a Theater of the Media……Page 249
Exegetes of the Panorama: Benayoun, Shaw, Naimark……Page 251
Mixed Realities……Page 260
Virtual Reality’s Dynamic Images……Page 263
The Computer: Handtool or Thinktool?……Page 270
7
Telepresence: Art and History of
an Idea……Page 285
Telepresence Now!……Page 286
Subhistory of Telepresence……Page 293
‘‘Telepistemological’’ Implications: Presence and Distance……Page 300
8
Evolution……Page 311
Genetic Art: Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau……Page 312
A-Volve……Page 315
Artful Games: The Evolution of Images……Page 319
A-Life’s Party……Page 323
A-Life’s Subhistory……Page 335
Transgenic Art……Page 341
9
Perspectives……Page 353
References……Page 367
Author Index……Page 417
Subject Index……Page 423