Into the Belly of the Image: Historical Aspects of Virtual Reality Author(S): Oliver Grau Source: Leonardo, Vol

Into the Belly of the Image: Historical Aspects of Virtual Reality Author(s): Oliver Grau Source: Leonardo, Vol. 32, No. 5, Seventh New York Digital Salon (1999), pp. 365-371 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576818 Accessed: 05/06/2009 22:53

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http://www.jstor.org Into the Belly of the Image

Historical Aspects of Virtual Reality

OliverGrau

Abstract IllusionarySpaces of 360 Degrees Virtualreality (VR) is a constant phenomenon in Virtual reality can entail an area of ritual action, a private, art history that can be traced back to antiquity. It artificial paradise, or a public sphere of politically suggestive can involve an area of ritual action, a private, power. Important aspects of the idea can be explained by focus- artificial paradise, or a public sphere with ing on historical examples. politically suggestive power-in short, it In the second Pompeiian style of late republican Rome, there encompasses a visual history that is were wall paintings that extended the room through representa- characterized by totality. The concept of tions of views into other spaces [3]. A particularlyforceful exam- transposing viewers into an enclosed, illusionary ple is shown in one of the most famous frescos of antiquity: the visual space has been revived and expanded in Villa Item, the so-called Casa dei Misteri at Pompeii, which dates the VRart of the current age. The more intimate- from 60 BC [4]. The audience finds itself amidst a series of life- ly an interface nestles into viewers' senses, the sized, highly realistic figures (Fig. 1). Some appeal directly to the more intense their immersion will be. Such an recipient; others communicate with each other from wall to wall interface weakens the viewers' sense of across the real space. The bordersbetween visual and actual space psychological distance and puts the relationship seem to dissolveas the figuresapparently move in real space.Visitors between art and consciousness into question. are trappedin the gaze of the figures,which hit from all sides and do not let go. The illusionary space surrounds the spectators entirely,

Virtual reality is seen by many today as an entirely new phenomenon. However, the idea of transposing the audience into an enclosed, illusionary visual space was not born with the invention of the computer; indeed it is grounded in a solid tradition within art history. Its core idea, which reaches back to antiquity, has been revived and expanded in the VR art of the current age. This kind of virtual reality excludes the sensation of being alienated by the image and surrounds the observer in an illusory setting where time and space are one. At the very least, it fulfills the concept of total perspective. To understandthe VR phenomenon and to make a contribution Fig...... d Pomp 60 Photo courtesyof Photothek Photothek to the debate concerning the so-called iconic turn [1], it is neces- F ig. 1. Casa dei Mist eri,Pompeiinar, HamBC. Photo courtesyof sary to develop J. Steuer's argument that VR should not be solely KunstgeschichtlichesSeminar, Hamburg. viewed at the technological level [2] but should be historicallycon- Oliver Grau, Humboldt University of Berlin, Dorotheenstraie 28, textualizedin order to comprehend its explosive impact as well as 10099 Berlin Germany. E-mail: [email protected] its close connection to political power.

? 1999 OliverGrau, received 15 February1998 LEONARDO, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 365-371, 1999 365 fixing them into the same place and time. t This is the initia- ! p tion or cult room of a Dionysian community. In the visual pres- _ ^.. ence of Dionysus and l: ; Ariadne, a mystical .^ consecration is being , :. prepared: women filled with the divine presence make sacri- fices while servants ' unveil a phallus, the liknon. A female ini- tiator-expectant and frightened by the epiphany-and a dancing Bacchant covered only with a veil are also represented. At the center J Baldassare 1516. Photo of Photothek of the Bacchanalian spettive by Peruzzi, courtesy Kunstgeschichtliches itheBar kanaisn Fig. 2. Sala delle Prc rites are ekstasis Seminar, Hamburg. (ecstasy) and enthusi- asmos (ardor). Physical and psychological Agostino Chigi in the Villa Farnesina in spaces. But their task was not to give the frontiers are torn down and filled with the Rome. Chigi was a nouveauriche desperate audience a sense of being transported to divine in order that participants may dive to securehis reputationand name largelyby another place (which in this case would into a precivilizedworld [5]. means of obsessivepatronage. Peruzzi encir- have been heaven). Instead their aim was to The image is a portal through which in cled the audiencewith the frescoof a virtual entrance the faithful and to overcome their one direction the gods pass into the real columned hall, painted in perspective,that sense of reason with a highly persuasive world and in the other real people enter offered illusionistic views of Rome and its religious vision. These pictures simultane- into the image. The frieze bears witness to surrounding countryside. The resultant ously depict a heavenly promise to the a virtual reality meant to encourage an panoramic effect was impressiveenough to audience on the floor and act as a means of emotional, ecstatic participation through garnerthe admirationof Serlio [6]. Accord- sacredcontrol. the use of such suggestive visual means as ing to Vasari,Titian was unwillingto believe During the seventeenth and eighteenth totality of representation, choice of color, that it was a painting [7]. century in the palaces and country houses and dramatic gesture, thereby creating a The view of the landscape contrasts of the aristocracy, hundreds of illusionary fusion of audience and image in cult. The with the monumentality of the illusionistic spaceswere created [10]. shining red vehemently projects a sensuous temple hall. The splendid isolation of this atmosphere,climaxing in a sexual initiation architecturecreates a feeling of the sublime, Panoramas ritual which draws the viewer inexorably matched only by the view from a moun- In England at the time of the Industrial into the image. This type of painting taintop, here resembling an imaginary Revolution, the new image-machine, the achieves the maximum potential available Mount Olympus from the top of which panorama, achieved hitherto unknown to the medium of the fresco in antiquity. the visitor is surveying the skyline of con- dimensions of illusionary effect (Fig. 3) temporaryRome [8]. Chigi's poet Marcan- [11]. With the financial help of Lord Sala delle Prospettive tonio Casanova compared the Farnesina- Elcho, Robert Barker realized his 1787 In the Renaissance, illusionistic spaces which he said was destined by Chigi to be patented invention in the Guard's Room were in great demand: the Villa Barbaroin the residence of the gods-with the of Holyrood Palace at Edinburgh. As a Maser or the virtual pilgrimageat the Sacro Olympian palace [9]. Chigi uses the feeling military strategistand enthusiastic member Monte near Varalloare just two outstanding of a pictorial presence to deify his own rep- of Parliament, Elcho was interested in any examples. The most remarkable of these utation with antique grandeur. reconnaissance and planning technology 360-degree spaces is the Sala delle Prospet- The decorative ceilings of Baroque that might aid in the control of occupied tive (Fig. 2), created between 1516 and church architecture (for instance at San Scotland. Barker was a draftsman; at the 1518 by Baldassare Peruzzi on behalf of Ignazio in Rome) also create illusionistic Edinburgh headquarters of the English

366 Oliver Grau, Into the Belly of the Image on its front 1 PreufischeZeitungwrote page:

At first the visitor is startled, he is sur- prised, and naturally keeps a distance. He is afraid to collide with the horses and feels inclined to move backwards. The air seems to be filled with swirled- up dust and mist. Trumpets sound and drums beat [14].

With the calculated precision of illusionism, both the 360-degree picture and the 3D interior concentrated and fixed the Fig.3. Diagramof a panoramafrom S. Oettermann,Das Panorama:Die Geschichte eines attention of the onlooker. The image was Massenmediums(Frankfurt: Syndikat, 1980), p. 41. not experienced as a self-contained object; indeed it negated the experienceof a closed troops in occupied Scotland he taught per- The Panoramaof the Battleof work of art, appearing instead as an artifi- spective drawing as a technique for mili- Sedan cial reality-everything was picture. The tary reconnaissance. To prepare for In the early nineteenth century, the BerlinerTageblatt reported:"It is as if one campaigns, the military was immensely military leaders of France and England, were standing amidst the awful battle" interested in taking down detailed Napoleon and Lord Nelson, both soon [15]. One was devoured by the image. This panoramic views of the topography and realized the panorama's potential as a prodigious, pseudoreligiousexperience was geography of the terrain. Panoramic medium for propaganda. (Bonaparte's meant to implant an unforgettable collec- images made it much easier to make tacti- plan for eight rotundas in the park of Ver- tive memory. cal plans for deployment zones, fields of sailles to publicize his victories remained The artist Anton von Werner, who cre- fire, or retreat than was possible with car- unrealized.)Almost 35% of all the panora- ated the panorama [16], always proclaimed tographic data alone. The birth of the mas show battles, in England and France its historical veracity, insisting that it was panorama can thus also be seen as a con- often from the colonial wars. based on a careful scientific reconstruction. nection between virtual media and military In Germany it was not until much lat- The German state, however, was mainly history. er, after the 1870-71 war with France, interested in sanctioning a mythic truth, In the panorama the audience is imme- that the medium was first used for political and Wilhelm's patronage imbued the diately surrounded on all sides by a three- propaganda.A paradigmaticrepresentative panorama with the authenticity of a vera dimensional interior, the Faux Terrain, was the Panorama of the Battle of Sedan, icon, although neither he nor Werner had which is imperceptibly connected to the which opened in 1883 in Berlin. witnessed the actual events. Despite Wern- two-dimensional visual action and often The monumental picture (the screen er's insistence on verisimilitude, the makes the visual frontier untraceable. measured more than 7000 square feet) panoramawas aimed at glorifying the Prus- Because of the "magical"luminosity of the transported the "military birth of the sian soldiers. The Prussian aggressor is images, which comes from a hidden source Empire" into the very center of urban shown as a "politicallycorrect" defender of of light, the visual space itself appearsto be Berlin. For the opening ceremony, the the nation. the source of reality. This representationof Emperor Wilhelm I and the most power- Interestingly enough, since the 1980s, nature gives the vision totality and creates ful figures of the German Empire were authoritarianregimes in North Korea, Chi- a sense of journeying through space and present. The picture gave an almost photo- na, Iraq, the former USSR, and Egypt have time -a complete universe of illusion. realistic portrayalof the action: on the 3D increasinglyrevived the battle panoramaas In a manner reminiscent of modern battlefield one could see bushes, stones, a means of enhancing national unity [17]. fears of simulator sickness, the panorama and entrenchments as well as real weapons Furthermorethe panorama has reappeared was criticized mainly for psychological rea- and cardboardsoldiers. on the World Wide Web in the form of sons. It was argued that the illusion could Today our eyes are used to following programs like QuicktimeVR and Virtual result in an inability to perceive reality increasingly accelerated movement; thus Reality Markup Language(VRML) [18]. [12]. Nevertheless the mass-media panora- we can hardly appreciate the effect that a ma spread successfully, with at least 100 still panorama picture had at that time. VirtualReality million people visiting the 300-400 Many witnesses attest to the strength of Since the discovery of this heretofore panoramic rotundas in Europe and Ameri- the deception in the first few moments. unresearched image tradition [19], it has ca between 1870 and 1900 alone, making They experienced the luminous scenery as been realized that the total images of VR this medium a focal point of pictorial art a real battle, and the press headlines spread are no novelty. The history of VR can be in the IndustrialEra [13]. this news all over the country. The Neue traced through nearly all epochs and media

Oliver Grau, Into the Belly of the Image 367 of art history, from the Wagnerian concept appeals to all senses and occupies physio- the worlds as if they are seen through a of the Gesamtkunstwerk [20] to Claude logical space as immediately and impercep- soft-focus lens, with phosphorescent light- Monet's immersive Impressionist panora- tibly as possible, as if it were a real points glimmering in the dark. In the sym- ma of waterlilies [21], Enrico Prampolini's experience [27]. Art itself reflects the bolic center, isolated on a clearing, stands a futuristic theater concepts [22], Sergei paradigm of the illusion through its very leafless tree, transparent and permeable, Eisenstein'stheories about the multisensual methodology. The current renaissance of shining like a crystal. The tree, which can 3D movie [23], and Gene Youngblood's the classical alliance of art and technology be traced as a symbol of life through art expanded cinema of the 1960s. in postindustrialsocieties has developed the history is now also virtual. Osmoseis a min- Technologically, the development of profile of a few artists who work in privi- eral-hard yet fluidly intangible sphere, a VR continued with the Stereoscope, leged positions in the development of tech- non-Cartesianspace. Although it is a tech- Cinerama, Stereopticon, Photorama, nology [28]. nically illusionary picture, Osmosesuggests Stereoscopic Television [24], Sensorama an optically poetic atmosphere. Neverthe- [25], and IMAX-Cinema. All had the same Osmose less the artist does not aim at replacing aim: to immerse the onlooker deeper and The most remarkable first glimpses of nature: if her vegetable representationsdo deeper into the image. These artistic this illusionisticgenre are the immersiveVR not appear abstract, neither do they visions represented a constant search for installation Osmoseby Char Davies and the attempt digital realism. illusion, using the most advanced methods interactive installation A-Volve by Christa The result of this finely tuned and phys- availablein order to addressthe senses. As a Sommererand LaurentMignonneau. ically intimate interface is a strong feeling result of artists'persistent role in the devel- Osmose (Fig. 4) represents a visually of bodily presence, causing a corresponding opment of new illusional media, those powerful real-time simulation of a dozen emotional mood. Many participantsspeak media are now regarded as belonging not nature and text spaces [29]. Immersed par- of experiencing a contemplative sense of only to the history of technology, but also ticipants control their navigation through tranquility and security. Such descriptions to culturalhistory. the dataspacewith a chest-hugging rubber testify to a central effect of virtual reality: With the military invention of the vest that contains sensory devices sensitive that suggestive presence in a total picture Head Mounted Display (HMD) [26] and to the body's breathing-a natural causes a mental-and, in Osmose,a specifi- the Dataglove, the viewer could now enter interface.Just as in diving, as one's lungs cally meditative-immersion. an interactive and dynamic image for the fill, one rises. Concentrated,even breathing first time in its history. Constant calcula- resultsin a feeling of balancedmotion. TheEnlivening Effect: tions in real time give computer images the As weightless and solitary as a diver, the Evolution illusion of transformability. Pictorial observer glides through opaque fog banks, The suggestive effect of presence in action, determined by the action of the abysmal oceanic depths, glinting dew, Osmose can be intensified by what C. user, is limited only by the interactive translucent swarms of insects, and the Heeter calls social presence: when agents restrictions of the program. VR represents thickets of dark woods. The HMD pro- in the virtual space act like individuals the search for an interface which, ideally, vides a soft and fluent transition between [30]. The higher the degree of correspon- dence between perceived actions and prob- able phenomena, the more likely it is that what is seen (as in the panorama) will be taken for real. VR research pursues this aim in every detail. A big step in this process can be seen in the non-VR installation A-Volve (1994) by Sommerer and Mignonneau (Fig. 5). For the first time A-Volve presented an oppor- tunity both to create virtual beings and to interact with them in real time [31]. The outline and cross-section of the creatures are sketched on a touchscreen, then pro- jected into a water-filled tank. In the water (a metaphor for life) they develop a phys- iognomy. Gathered around the pool, the viewers observe the survival of their amor- -- I phous 3D creations, which from this point on are subject to the laws of evolution. r -ig. I The guiding principle is the survivalof the Fig.4. An image from Osmose, virtualreality installation by CharDavies/Softimage, 1995. fittest. Certain forms swim faster and are

368 Oliver Grau, Into the Belly of the Image into a more rational-and the connecting interface is, like the surface |.' - -INTERACTION distant -relation of picture of water in A-Volve. Virtual reality, which and observer.In the longest has at its core the complete disconnection period of its history, even of human senses from nature and matter, before the "invention" of presents the strongest challenge of illusion- art, the image was believed ism so far. Increased processor capacity tle to be endowed with occult raises the potential for increasedverisimili- powers. We can see this in tude-and for psychological manipulation. the etymological root of the Seen against the historical background of German word for image, illusionism, the intended abolition of the Bil, and its Germanicroot, interfacebecomes a highly politicalquestion. bil. These roots carry with Fig.5. An image from A-Volve,interactive real-time them an often-overlooked Distance installationby ChristaSommerer and LaurentMignonneau, connotation of something In animated virtual environments, a ATRLaboratories, Kyoto, 1994-95. permeated by an irrational, very fragile center of art is put into ques- magical, and spectral power tion: the gesture of distance by the recipi- better able to assert themselves against oth- that cannot be fully understood or con- ent, which allows critical reflection in the ers; as a result they are able to pass on their trolled by the observer[35]. first place. The further the illusionarysym- genetic makeup, including any mutations, With evolutionary image processes, a biosis between work and onlooker pro- to their descendants. dialectical relationship with the image gresses, the more it will weaken the Onlookers can "play God," creating machine seems possible. Here interaction is psychological distance between the two. new beings or bringing the simulated bio- not only about freedom of choice for the Yet without distance, the work cannot be types under their influence. By slightly player, as Vilem Flusser noted [36], but perceived as an autonomous esthetic stroking the water-a natural interface- about unexpected change, forcing the user object. It was Ernst Cassirerand, later, Aby the creatures can be attracted, trapped, to react. Evolution removes conceptual Warburg in his Mnemosyne Atlas, who manipulated, or even killed. By encourag- control from the artists, making them pas- stressed the intellectually productive, ing an identification with the creatures,A- sive witnesses to random changeswhich the awareness-raisingpower of distance [40]: Volve reduces the apparent distance user can select like a breeder. H. Jonas [41], T.W. Adorno [42], A. between life and artificiallife (A-life). Finally, the use of evolutionary formats Gehlen [43] and M. Foucault [44] devel- A-Volves evolution is founded on genet- in VR-installations supports the illusion of oped this idea further. As much as the ic algorithms. Sommerer and Mignonneau life. It has been argued that the audience viewer might crave to overcome these barri- innovatively apply proceduralprinciples of becomes emotionally involved when a bal- ers, the very experience of the subject as evolution, such as selection, crossover, and ance is created between the freedom of subject depends on distance [45]. Tradi- mutation to enable the creatures to adapt interaction with interesting charactersand tionally, as Serreswrites [46], the onlooker homogeneously and uniformly. Evolution a prearranged dramatic plot [37]. Psy- mentally activatesthe elements of fixed art- creates pictures of a nature that is unpre- chobiological tests show that the more the works. Virtual Reality and evolutionary dictable, transitory, and unique, and its participants are involved, the less they are image processes via genetic algorithms, impact on art emerges:the variety in forms able to differentiate between the artificial however, seem to turn this concept on its that might evolve during these processes is world and personal experience. Thus the head: the objects move first, apparently theoretically unlimited, comprising all system can manipulate participants even activating the onlooker. In our panel dis- beings in the past and future, maybe even without their becoming awareof it [38]. In cussion at the InternationalSymposium on beings from beyond our imagination [32]. fact the body's output of endorphins causes Electronic Arts (ISEA '97), Char Davies The more complex these structuresare, the a sense of a "high" [39]. spoke of this annihilation of distance as more intensely the pictures seem to live. In Whatever one might think about sce- "the bittersweetnessof VR" [47]. the end they are not terminated, but are narios of this nature, it seems clear that vir- More and more people have experi- changeable, adaptable, even able to learn tual culture will not experience its greatest enced machine-made illusionary spaces, undercumulative methods of selection [33]. illusionistic potential at the hands of whose function has a historic continuity In other papers, I have described the ardent, hard-workingengineers calculating stretching from Pompeii to the present: as consequencesof interaction for the work of each and every detail, but by combinatory forums of ritual fusion, subtle escapes from art [34]. With evolution, the suggestive processesgenerating unforeseeable forms. the world, and means of manipulation by potential of the image has to be defined on political power. Historically, each exten- a hitherto unknown level. At present it Interface sion and intensification of sensory activity seems as if dynamic real-time images are The "living" virtual picture, which is has coincided with both an increasing revitalizing a premodern concept of the the aim of current research,is better experi- dependency on sensory machines and the image that had previously been transmuted enced the more real and the more natural expansion of technical means of control

Oliver Grau, Into the Belly of the Image 369 and power. VR reveals itself as the heir to Wandmalerei(Stuttgart, Germany: Belser, 1990) international and toured the world. When the and B. illusionism as manifested in its paradigmat- p. 213; Wesenberg, "R6mische Wand- profits no longer covered the operatingcosts, the malerei am Ausgang der Republik: Der zweite pictureswere neglectedand often discarded. ic representative,the panorama. Although Pompejanische Stil," Gymnasium,92 (1985) p. 14. Neue PreufjischeZeitung-Kreuzzeitung, 205 (4 today the audience can exert its creative 473. September1883) p. 1. powers over the image, this control is 4. E. Simon, "Zum Fries der bei Mysterienvilla 15. BerlinerTageblatt, 409 (2 September,1883) p. 1. counterweighed by the highly suggestive Pompeji,"Jahrbuch des DeutschenArchdologischen 16.Von Werner was a of the Kaiser and Instituts,76, pp. 111-172 (1961); B. Hundsalz, protege powers of the image itself. Maybe we are came to hold a dominant in the cultural "Neues zum grofgen Fries der Mysterienvilla," position a relation to the that of the For he con- regaining image KolnerJahrbuch fur Vor- und Friihgeschichte,24 politics Empire. many years trolled its He that the reaches far back into precivilized history, (1991) pp. 73-78. agenda. suggested develop- ing modern art movementshould be counteredby giving it a power that transcendsa 5. W. Burkert, Ancient Cults psychic Mystery (Cam- a state policy for the artswhich determinedbeauty MA: Harvard Press, as well as physical boundaries and enables bridge, University 1987) pp. "as an internationalcommission keeps watch over 58, 95; R. Merkelbach,Roman und in us to to an Mysterium security, certainty, and accuracyof the standard regress,leading ecstatic symbio- derAntike (Munich, Germany:Beck, 1962). meter." A. von Werner, und Reden sis of onlooker and image. Ansprachen 6. S. Serlio, I sette libri dell'architettura,Vol. 1 (Berlin,Germany: Schuster 1896) p. 42. (Venice, Arnaldo Forni, 1978 Italy: [1584]) p. 17. Battle of Stalingrad,Volgograd, USSR, 1962; 192. Acknowledgments BattleNear Al Qadissiyah,Al-Mada'in, Iraq, 1968; The presentessay has been adaptedfrom the texts 7. G. Vasari,Le Vite(Florence: Studio per le edi- Panoramaof the Liberationof Pleven,Pleven, Bul- of two papers presented at the international zioni scelte, 1976 [1568]) Vol. 4, p. 318. garia, 1977; Battle at Teschou,Pyongyang, North research conference Consciousness Korea, before 1987; Panorama the Arab-Israeli Reframed:Art 8. U. Ewering, Der mythologischeFries der Sala of and Consciousnessin the War, Cairo, Battle at the Lo Gou Post-BiologicalEra at the delle Prospettivein der Villa Farnesina zu Rom Egypt, 1988; Center for Advanced in the Interactive on 1937, R. Inquiry (Minster, Germany: Hochschulschriften, 1993) Bridge 7July Beijing, China, 1988; Arts (CAiiA) in Wales, in The Art and Newport, July 1997, pp. 57ff. Hyde, Panoramania!: Entertainment and at the Eighth International Symposium on of the 'All-Embracing" View (London: Trefoil 9. I.D. Rowland, "Some to Electronic Art (ISEA) at the Art Institute of Panegyrics Agostino Publications,1988) pp. 200ff. Chicago in 1997. Chigi," TheJournal of the Warburgand Courtauld September 18.M. "World-Wide Views on the Institutes,47, No. 18, 198ff. (1984). Mirapaul, I am gratefulto Horst Bredekamp,Hans Belt- World Wide Web," The Wall StreetJournal (3 10.E. Borsch-Supan, Garten-, und ing, Iris Mahnke, Richard Barbrook, Joseph Landschafts- September1998) p. A-20. Nechvatal, Friedrich Kittler, Stefan Germer, Paradiesmotiveim Innenraum(Berlin, Germany: 19.0. Grau, "Die Sehnsucht, im Bild zu sein, Wolfgang Coy, Martin Kemp, Ken Goldberg, Hessling, 1967). Mag. Art."Thesis, of 1994, Joachim Sauter and Wolfgang Welsch for their University Hamburg, 11.A number of contemporarysources compare 20. comments on p. helpful the ideas presented.The fol- the illusionaryspace with the panoramaand con- and institutions 20. Richard was known to for mul- lowing people kindly provided sider the advantagesand disadvantagesof the lat- Wagner plead access to VR and related Monika tisensory, true-to-life, mass-effectmultimedia art technology: ter. On the other hand, the experiences gained Fleischmannand Strauss (Gesellschaft that unifies all art forms:R. "Das Kunst- Wolfgang from the panoramawere used in the development Wagner, fur Mathematik und werk der in Gesammelte Datenverarbeitung of illusionaryspaces. See J. Britton and N. Whit- Zukunft," Schrifien,Vol. GMD/Sankt Augustin), the Fraunhofer 3 E.W. tock, The Union of Architecture,Sculpture, and (Leipzig, Germany: Fritsch, 1887) pp. Institut/Stuttgart,Christa Sommererand Laurent 42-177. Painting: with DescriptiveAccounts of the House Mignonneau (Advanced Telecommunication and Galleriesof John Soane(1827), pp. 3ff., quot- 21. The Nympheas reveala complete panoramaof Research-Lab.Kyoto), Itsuo Sakane-san(Interna- ed in W. Croft-Murray, DecorativePainting in Monet's water lily pond. Monet induces onlook- tional Academyof Media Arts and Sciences/Gifu), England, 1537-1837 (London: Country Life, ers to imagine themselvesimmersed in the abso- Yukiko Shikata (ARTLAB/Tokyo), Char Davies 1970) p. 64. A further connection between the luteness of the water K. (Immersence/Montreal),Knowbotic Research. landscape. panoramaand the privateillusionary space is sug- Sagner-Duchting,Claude Monet: Nymphdas: Eine gested by panorama wallpaper, which could be Anndherung(Hildesheim, Germany:Georg Olms, Referencesand Notes fabricatedat a low cost and was fashionablein the 1985) pp. 55-67. nineteenth century among the urban bourgeoisie. 1. The iconic turn has made the image the cen- 22. E. 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"I am swayingbetween reality and ... the Images,"in Heinrich Klotz, ed., Contemporary unreality intensity into the screen and simultaneously to between truth and pretense. My thoughts, my Art: The Collectionof the ZKM Centerfor Art and overwhelm him with that which was previously whole being are given a movement which has the Media Karlsruhe(New York: Prestel, 1997) pp. enclosed in the mirror of the screen," S. Eisen- same effect as spinning or the rocking of a boat. 32-37; 0. Grau, "In das lebendige Bild: Die stein, "O sterokino"(1947), in Oksana Bulgako- Thus I explain the dizziness and sickness which Virtuelle Realitat setzt der Kunst neue Spiel- va, ed., Das dynamischeQuadrat: Schriften zum overcomes the concentrated onlooker in the regeln," in Neue Bildende Kunst: fir Film, (Leipzig, Germany:Reclam, 1988) p. 207. Zeitschrift Panorama."J.A. Eberhard,Handbuch der Asthetik Kunstund Kritik,7, No. 6, 28-35 (1997); Klaus Translationby the author. (Halle, Germany: Hemmerde and Schwetschke, Sachs-Hombach,ed., Bildgrammatik(Magdeburg, 24.W.R. Halbach, in 1805), part 1, letter 28, p. 175. Translationby 0. "RealityEngines," Norbert Germany:Scriptum Verlag, 1999). Grau. Bolz, ed., Computerals Medium (Munich, Ger- 2. J. Steuer, "Defining Virtual many:Fink, 1994) pp. 231ff. Reality: Dimen- 13.S. Oettermann,Das Panorama:Die Geschichte sions DeterminingTelepresence," Journal Com- 25. L. "Now into a Movie: Sensora- of eines Massenmediums(Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Lipton, Step munication,42, No. 4, 73-93, 91 ma," Popular esp. (1992). Syndikat, 1980) p. 192. For the specific historyof Photography,July 1964, 114, 116. 3. V.M. Strocka, "Der Zweite Pompejanische the panorama,see S. Bordini, Storiadel Panorama 26.I.E. Sutherland, "A Head-Mounted Three- Stil" in G. Cerulli Irelli, ed., Pompejanische (Rome: Officina Edizioni, 1984). In order to Dimensional Display," in Proceedingsof the Fall make maximum profits, the panorama became Joint Conference,AFIPS, 33, 757-764 (1968).

370 Oliver Grau, Into the Belly of the Image The HMD was financed by the Advanced Presence," Presence: Teleoperatorsand Virtual ResearchProjects Agency (ARPA);see B. Wooley, Environments,1, No. 1, 10 (1993). VirtualWorlds: A Journeyin Hypeand Hyperreality 38. Kelso and Weyhrauch[37] p. 14. (Oxford, UK: Blackwell,1992) 53. p. 39. D. Sheff, Game Over: How Nintendo Con- 27.W. Barfield,"Comparison of Human Capabil- queredthe World(New York:Vintage, 1993). ities with Technical Specifications of Virtual 40. E. Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos(Darm- EnvironmentEquipment", in Presence:Teleopera- stadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchge- torsand VirtualEnvironments, 4, No. 4, 329-356 sellschaft, 1963 [1927]) p. 179; A. Warburg: (1995); M. Slater et al., "Depth of Presence in "Einleitungzum Mnemosyne-Atlas,"in C. Geiss- Virtual Environments," Presence 3, No. 2, mar, ed., Die Beredsamkeitdes Leibes:Zur Kirper- 130-144 (1994); and K. Stanney, "Human Fac- spracheder Kunst (Salzburgand Vienna, Austria: tors: Issues in Virtual Environments,"Presence 7, Residenz-Verlag,1991) pp. 171-173. Historically No. 4, 327-351. the distanceparadigm goes furtherback: since the 28.C. Sommerer and L. Mignonneau, eds., eighteenth century it has been regarded as the Art@Science (New York: Springer, 1998) and fundamentalprerequisite for experiencingart and M.A. Moser, ed., Immersedin Technology:Art and nature. The inner distance was to be matched Virtual Environments (Cambridge, MA: MIT carefullyin orderto allow the total view as well as Press, 1996). a detailed perception. Distance rejectsneither the 29. C. Davies and J. Harrison,"Osmose: Towards compulsive and the passionate nor religion and Broadening the Aesthetics of Virtual Reality," myth; it focuses, however, on their integration into the of human ACM Computer Graphics 30, No. 4, 25-28 experience entirety. (1996); F. Dyson, "ChargedHavens," in World 41.H. Jonas, "Der Adel des Sehens: Eine Unter- Art 3 (1996) pp. 42-47; M. Morse, Virtualities: suchung zur Phanomenologie der Sinne," in Television, Media Art and Cyberculture(Indi- Organismus und Freiheit: Ansitze zu einer anapolis,IN: Indiana UniversityPress, 1998), pp. philosophischenBiologie (Gottingen, Germany: 208-209; 0. Grau, "VomZen des Tauchens,"Die Vandenhoeck& Ruprecht, 1973) pp. 198-219. Zeit 62. (19 June 1997) p. 42."Distance is what nearness to a work's sub- 30.C. Heeter, "Being There: The Subjective stance requiresfirst. In the Kantianterm of indif- Experience of Presence," Presence:Teleoperators ference, which demands an esthetic behaviorthat and VirtualEnvironments 1 No. 2, 264ff. (1992); does not seize the object, does not devour it, this P. Maes et al., "The ALIVE System: Full Body is noted. . . . Distance concerning the phe- Interaction with Autonomous Agents," Proceed- nomenon transcendsthe mere existenceof a work ings of the ComputerAnimation '95 Conference of art; its total nearnesswould be its total integra- (Genoa, Italy:IEEE-Press, 1995). tion." T.W. Adorno, AsthetischeTheorie (Frank- 1973) 460. 31. C. Sommererand L. Mignonneau,"Art as Liv- furt, Germany: Suhrkamp, p. Translation 0. Grau. ing System," Systems,Control de Information40, by No. 8, 16-23 (1996); and Sommerer and 43. "The immediateemotionalism of experienceis Mignonneau, "Interactingwith Artificial Life: A- from the outset regardedas foreign to art-and Volve," Complexity2, No. 6, 13-21 (1997). with justice." A. Gehlen, Zeitbilder (Frankfurt, 32.K. Kelly, Out of Control:The New Biologyof Germany:Klostermann, 1986) p. 60. Translation the Machines (London: Fourth Estate, 1995); by 0. Grau. M.A. Boden, ed., The Philosophyof ArtificialLife 44. The Foucaultiansubject is primarilybased on (London:Oxford Univ. Press, 1996). self-detachment:M. Foucault, Histoirede la sexu- 33.T.S. Ray, "An EvolutionaryApproach to Syn- alite I: La volonte de savoir (Paris: Gallimard, thetic Biology: Zen and the Art of CreatingLife," 1976). in C.G. Langton, ed., ArtificialLife (Cambridge, 45. "Allbliss is immersioninto the flesh and with- MA: MIT Press, 1997) pp. 179-209. drawsthe historyof the subject.All self-conscious- 34.0. Grau, "Hingabe an das Nichts: Der ness is releasefrom the flesh which determinesour Sub- Cyberspace zwischen Utopie, Okonomie, und submissionto nature."H. B6hme, Natur und Kunst," Medien.Kunst.Passagen.4, pp. 17-30 jekt (Frankfurt, Germany: Suhrkamp, 1988) p. (1994). 221. Translationby the author. 35.A. Wolf, Die germanische Sippe bil: Eine 46. Only in the fixed artworkwhose elements the "sets into motion" does the con- Entsprechnugzu Mana, in UniversitetsArsskrift onlooker spatial become a vivid, sensuousevent. M. Ser- (Uppsala,Sweden: 1930) pp. 18-56. figuration res, Carpaccio: Asthetische Zugdnge (Reinbek, 36.V. Flusser, Ins Universum der technischen Germany:Rowohlt, 1981) p. 152. Bilder(G6ttingen, Germany:European Photogra- Illusion" at the phy, 1985) p. 123; F. R6tzer: "Interaktion:Das 47. C. Davies at the "Virtual panel Ende herkommlicherMassenmedien," in S. Boll- Inter Symposium on ElectronicArts (ISEA),Arts mann, ed., Kursbuchneue Medien (Mannheim, Instituteof Chicago, 4 September1997. Germany: BI Verlag, 1995) pp. 57-78; S. Kramer, "Vom Mythos 'Kiinstliche Intelligenz' zum Mythos 'Kiinstliche Kommunikation' oder, Oliver Grau is researcher in the Ist eine nicht-anthropomorphe von Internet- project Interaktionen moglich?", in S. Miinker, ed., "Art History and Media Theorie(s) of Vir- MythosInternet (Frankfurt, Germany: Suhrkamp tual Reality" at the Humboldt University 1997) pp. 83-107. in Berlin, supported by the Deutsche 37.M. Kelso and P. Weyhrauchet al., "Dramatic Forschungsgemeinschaft.

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