Medium
“The medium is the message” - Marshall
McLuhan
The medium
is not the only message. It may very well be delivering an important message.
But each
medium that we come up with also changes our world in ways that we need to pay
as much attention to as the message it delivers.
medium - An intervening substance through which something else is transmitted or
carried on.
What do we seek to transmit?
Story
Telling
Written Word
Drawings
Sculpture
Film
Immersive Media
Each media is capable of
delivering a message. Yet, what makes
one medium better than another? What is
the message that the medium is delivering itself?
Story Telling and the Written Word
These
media deliver immersion to the listener.
Immerse
- To engage wholly or deeply;
absorb: scholars who immerse themselves in their subjects.
Immersion
can be either mental or physical. Story
telling is a purely mental immersion.
Drawings and Sculpture
These media offload some of
the burden from the imagination of the receiver.
Although we see them as white
marble, Greek sculptures were painted and attempted to interject the subject
into the physical presence of the observer.
Cave drawings were drawn inside the dark of the cave because the
storyteller wanted to use them to create a physical immersion; to take the
users from the world they know and immerse then in another reality.
Film and Immersive Media
Film uses moving imagery to
create a much more complete sense of mental immersion, yet it does not
completely succeed in creating a physical immersion because be remain aware
that we are sitting in a theater chair.
It is only through suspension of disbelief that we find
ourselves truly immersed in the movie.
Immersive media, from drawings in a cave to virtual environments, seek
to accomplish the feat of bringing true physical immersion to the observer.
What is so appealing about escaping
reality?
Our
reality is full of limitations, boredom, and starkness. Perhaps the most famous story about escaping
the limitations of mortal life are the Greek Myths, specifically the story of Persius
who’s mother was impregnated by a Zeus and who was sent to kill the Gorgon
Medusa.
Limitations
Man is well aware of his
limitations; he is well aware of the physical realities of the world he lives
in. Books such as Angela’s Ashes remind
us of why the average woman in 1800 had 8 children. Although we talk of miracles and magic, our
lives are dominated by the limitations of our ability to have agency
in the world.
agency – the ability to effect change in the world.
We struggle to change the
world, and we often feel that it is the world and not ourselves that is
directing the outcome of our lives. We
seek to escape our limitations; to be at the side of the one “pulling the
levers” that direct our lives.
Boredom
The teenage mind is terribly
aware of the physical realities of the world; it is this awareness that drives
young people to so many great lengths to escape the mendacity of their everyday
lives. Experimentation with drugs, seeking
adventure, philosophical movements, cyberspace, sex addiction, all are escapes
from the stark reality that we are only too aware of around us.
Starkness
There is starkness that one
feels when they fully understand the limitations and mendacity of everyday
life. People resist the reality that
their lives have such limitations and, as such, entertain the idea that there
is another reality beyond this one. The
idea that we alone are truly responsible for the world and all those that our
lives touch is a truly burdensome realization.
It is comforting to believe that something more powerful than our
limited singular selves is taking care of this awesome responsibility. Perhaps as we realize the frailty of our own
fathers and find we are now the ones in charge, the idea of a heavenly father
becomes appealing.
How do we to create another
reality?
Although we may suspend
disbelief and enjoy the mental immersion of fantasy worlds, divine beings, or
all-powerful extraterrestrials, we seek an intersection between the physical
world we are so aware of an these alternate
realities. It is for this reason that
divine healings and UFO sightings are such contentious subjects; these are
attempts to bring these belief systems into the physical world we inhabit.
Yet, if we cannot convince
ourselves that alternate realities where we are not confined within our mortal
limits, where we can direct and control our lives with more agency, then
perhaps we can escape to them if only momentarily. And, if these worlds succeed in a convincing
physical immersion then we may find comfort in that. But short of full physical immersion there
are a number of other media that we can engage in.
Immersive Media
cyberspace
Cyberspace is a world we can
immerse ourselves in. We have agency in
that world. We can be a person who is
not limited by the way we look, the money we have, or our social or physical
skills in cyberspace. Cyberspace
includes massive multiplayer worlds where people role play with
characters, but it is not limited to this.
The world of cyberspace is a world were ideas flow, where groups and
organizations exist, where change can be accomplished in a manner much
different that the physical world we know.
Writers such as William Gibson
and philosophers such as Pierre Levy
argue that cyberspace is now a real world; that locations, organizations, and a
whole system now exist in this realm that is more powerful than the physical
world and may come to dominate it.
renaissance cathedrals
Cathedrals such as the famous
Chartres
in
interactive media
Early text based adventure
games such as Kork
helped to solidity the sense of immersion in the world suggested by the
game. Because we have agency in the
game, and because agency is a salient feature of our everyday lives, we find
feeling a greater sense of immersion within the world of the game. Virtual Reality is the attempt to
create complete physical immersion in another world through the use of computer
graphics, robotics, sound and other technologies that deliver stimulus to our 5
senses.