Bursting the Bubble (2019)
article⁄Bursting the Bubble (2019)
abstract⁄The ‘bubble’ is an oftused keyword in discussions about Virtual Reality VR and Virtual Environments VE. Apart from pointing to the growing, yet precarious, rise of these domains in technology markets, the ‘bubble’ is also a prolific metaphor for spatial, experiential, and technical aspects of virtual worlds. Combining material from architectural history and history of computing, this paper situates and critically activates two threads of the ‘bubble’ metaphor the bubble as a closed, autonomous system severed from its surroundings, and the bubble as an ubiquitous, limitless environment. Through historical episodes from the development of Head Mounted Displays HMDs, the paper positions current VR HDMs into a genealogy of miniaturization of actual architectural ‘bubbles’ from military simulation domes to wearable ‘micro environments’and examines the techniques that support the illusion of these closed, autonomous worlds as limitless and ubiquitous. The paper concludes with the description of a critical design project that exposes the limits of VR’s limitless worlds and the role of context physical, architectural in both making and breaking the VR bubble.
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| Year |
2019 |
| Authors |
Leblanc, Maxime; Vardouli, Theodora. |
| Issue |
ACADIA 19:UBIQUITY AND AUTONOMY |
| Pages |
310-319 |
| Library link |
N/A |
| Entry filename |
bursting-bubble |
