Shadow plays : virtual realities in an analog world / Massimo Riva

Format:

Website/Database

Author/Creator:

Riva, Massimo, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Optical instruments--History--17th century.

Optical instruments.

Optical instruments--History--18th century.

Visual perception--Social aspects--History.

Visual perception.

Camera obscuras--History.

Camera obscuras.

Cosmoramas--History.

Cosmoramas.

Periscopes--History.

Periscopes.

Magic lantern shows--History.

Magic lantern shows.

Stereoscopic views--History.

Stereoscopic views.

Italy--Civilization--1559-1789.

Italy.

Civilization.

Visual perception--Social aspects.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : sound, color illustrations

Place of Publication:

[Stanford, California] : Stanford University Press, [2022]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

"Shadow Plays explores popular forms of entertainment used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to transport viewers to a new world, foreshadowing present-day virtual, augmented, and extended reality experiences (VR, AR, and XR). Typically studied as part of the prehistory of cinema or the archaeology of media, analog technologies such as the mondo nuovo or cosmorama, the magic lantern, the moving panorama, and the stereoscope evoked shadow copies of our world long before the advent of digital technologies and exercised a powerful pull on minds and imaginations. Through six case histories and eight interactive simulations, Massimo Riva explores themes of virtual travel, social surveillance, and utopian imagination, shedding light on illustrious or, in some instances, forgotten figures and inventions from Italy's past. Arguing for the continuity of experience and imagination, Riva adopts the term virtual realism, an experience marked by the virtualization of the real and the realization of the virtual. At a time when the gap between simulations and "real" experiences is getting ever smaller, a cultural-historical exploration of the prehistory of virtual reality can help us better understand the present in light of the past while exploring the past using the tools forged in the present."--Stanford University Press

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (Stanford University Press, viewed June 10, 2022)

ISBN:

9781503629875

1503629872

OCLC:

1328039111

Access Restriction:

Open access Unrestricted online access