At the Threshold of the Image
eBook - ePub

At the Threshold of the Image

From Narcissus to Virtual Reality

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

At the Threshold of the Image

From Narcissus to Virtual Reality

About this book

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.

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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 one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Prologue
  6. I. The Two Narcissuses
  7. II. Alice’s Mirror
  8. III. Pygmalion in Westworld
  9. IV. The Environmental Image
  10. V. The Subject in Question
  11. VI. In/Out
  12. VII. Empathy Machine?
  13. Epilogue
  14. Acknowledgments
  15. Notes
  16. Index