Virtual art : from illusion to immersion
"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." "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 work of contemporary artists and groups ART+COM, Maurice Benayoun, Charlotte Davies, Monika Fleishmann, 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 anayzing its phenomenologies, functions, and strategies throughout history and into the future."--Jacket
xiv, 416 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780262072410, 9780262572231, 0262072416, 0262572230
49576660
1. Introduction : The science of the image ; Immersion
2. Historic spaces of illusion : Immersive image strategies of the classical world ; The Chambre du Cerf in the Papal Palace at Avignon ; In Rome on Mount Olympus: Baldassare Peruzzi's Sala delle Prospettive ; Immersion in biblical Jerusalem: Gaudenzio Ferrari at Sacro Monte ; Baroque ceiling panoramas ; Viewing with military precision: the birth of the panorama ; Barker's invention: developing the space of illusionistic landscapes ; Construction and function of the panorama ; The panorama: a controversial medium circa 1800 ; The role of economics in the international expansion of the panorama
3. The panorama of the Battle of Sedan: obedience through presence : The battle in the picture ; The power of illusion, suggestion, and immersion ; Anton von Werner: artist and power player ; Political objectives ; The panorama stock exchange ; With Helmholtz's knowledge: "democratic perspective" versus "soldiers' immersion" ; Strategy and work of the panoramist ; L'art industriel ; The rotunda
4. Intermedia stages of virtual reality in the twentieth century: art as inspiration of evolving media : Monet's Water Lilies panorama in Giverny ; Prampolini's futurist polydimensional scenospace ; Film: visions of extending the cinema screen and beyond ; Highways and byways to virtual reality: the "ultimate" union with the computer in the image ; The rhetoric of a new dawn: the California dream ; Virtual reality in its military and industrial context ; Art and media evolution I. 5. Virtual art, digital! The natural interface : Charlotte Davies: Osmose ; The suggestive potential of the interface ; Aesthetic distance ; The concept of "the work" in processual or virtual art
6. Spaces of knowledge : Knowbotic research (KR + cF): Dialogue with the Knowbotic South ; The virtual Denkraum I: The Home of the Brain (1991) ; The virtual Denkraum II: Memory Theater VR by Agnes Hegedues (1997) ; Ultima Ratio: for a theater of the media ; Exegetes of the panorama: Benayoun, Shaw, Naimark ; Mixed realities ; Virtual reality's dynamic images ; The computer: handtool or thinktool?
7. Telepresence: art and history of an idea : Telepresence now! ; Subhistory of telepresence ; "Telepistermological" implications: presence and distance
8. Evolution : Genetic art: Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau ; A-Volve ; Artful games: the evolution of images ; A-Life's party ; A-Life's subhistory ; Transgenic art
9. Perspectives
Translated from the German