An exploration of the impact of immersive experiences on visual practices from cave painting to virtual reality
In this groundbreaking book, philosopher Andrea Pinotti explores the impacts of a desire that has motivated human beings since prehistory: the desire to enter an image. He proposes that over the centuries, every culture has tried to realize this wish with whatever visual resources were available at the time, and today’s virtual reality technologies seem close to fulfilling it. The image in VR becomes an immersive 360-degree environment and the frame that used to confine it to a world apart disappears. Even the physical medium in which the image materializes appears to be transparent. However, Pinotti insists that once the border between the real world and the iconic world becomes permeable, we are faced with a troubling two-way passage: we penetrate the world of the image, but the image floods into our world. The desire for being encompassed by the image, he shows, is accompanied by fear of this overflowing. In its analysis of this desire/fear, At the Threshold of the Image takes the reader on an extraordinary journey from the myths of Narcissus and Pygmalion to contemporary VR headsets, passing through the pictorial traditions of trompe l’oeil and living sculptures, the mirrors in Alice in Wonderland, illusionistic architecture, panoramas and phantasmagorias, and 3D cinema.
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Prologue
- I. The Two Narcissuses
- II. Alice’s Mirror
- III. Pygmalion in Westworld
- IV. The Environmental Image
- V. The Subject in Question
- VI. In/Out
- VII. Empathy Machine?
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
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Yes, you can access At the Threshold of the Image by Andrea Pinotti in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & History of Art. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.