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Project

Understanding virtual reality through ongoing embodied imagining.

Virtual Reality (VR) is seen as an enactive and embodied technology, because its movement interfaces allow for interactive experiences. But one is still seen as 'disembodied' or only virtually embodied in the VR. The main feature of virtual engagements is not embodiment, but imagination, because imagination brings to mind unreal, fictional entities. What has not been thoroughly researched is the role of embodied/enactive imagination in VR. That is because this concept has not yet been fully developed. Also, the existing literature on VR sees imagination involved in VR as representational: virtual objects and environments, seen as fictions that do not exist, need to be represented in imagination. This creates a problem of how to explain immersing in the VR. This project brings the body into VR in a strong way. It defends a new ongoing embodied imagining (OEI) thesis for VR, which proposes that ongoing embodied processes (neural, motoric and explicit performances) allow us to anticipate future states or actions, also in virtual contexts. It sees virtual reality as a place of action possibilities available to an embodied being. This thesis is crucial for better understanding of virtual interactions. It can solve the problems to do with embodiment (is one truly embodied in the VR?) and immersion (can one be truly present in the VR?). This research will apply the OEI thesis in different contexts that utilize VR platforms, such as education, gaming, and sport.
Date:1 Oct 2022 →  Today
Keywords:THEORETICAL STUDY
Disciplines:Social perception and cognition, Philosophy of humanities, Philosophy of social science