Reflection on “Artforum International”

Q1: This article was written before the popularity of Metaverse. Do you still agree with that VR experiences create solipsistic quality?

The solipsistic quality was mentioned in the article “Wildest Dreams”, where Douglas asked Daniel the question: “Do you think VR is returning us to an almost amniotic dream state”, and Daniel’s answer is “One of the limitations of VR as a medium for art is exactly this solipsistic quality, the fact that you go into a state of fundamental solitude. ” From this, we can get the meaning solipsistic quality means the VR experience happened on your own, and you cannot share the experience with others. 

From my understanding, the VR technique is allowed the users to experience a totally virtual world from their own eyes. They experienced the VR world just like experiencing reality, that is the first-person perspective. From this aspect, even in the reality, you are still experiencing the art piece with your own sense. Your feelings and thoughts toward the art piece are private and cannot be shared directly, for it occurs directly to your sense organ and mind. No one can get the exactly same sense of one work. The shortcoming of VR at that time was that you cannot start a real time discussion. With the popularity of Metaverse, I think the basic solipsistic quality in the art will still exist. The only difference is that you can start the online discussion with your friend while experiencing the VR arts.

Q2: Please analyze and define what the immersive experience is from the perspective of a sense of derealization and empathy in this article. Does immersive experience necessarily involve a sense of derealization(depersonalization) and empathy?

The article “I Feel You” seriously pointed out that the VR disaster experience shouldn’t be called empathy, for it only takes you into that environment, and you can see the situation at that time clearly, but that also cannot guarantee that you can have the same experience, for you are in the environment but not in the real situation. Also, even if you become a caveman in virtual reality, in your heart you know that you come from the future, and you are an advanced human. Knowing that I become one thing doesn’t mean I accept that I become the thing; can see the same thing doesn’t mean can have the same feeling, and if we considered seeing the same thing as a kind of empathy, this empathy will lead to a wrong direction and make the VR art useless.

I think the real immersive experience is to create the same emotion for the user. The confusing mental statement of the caveman, the frightened emotion of the refugee, etc. Creating an emotion for the user is hard to achieve with nowadays technology, but we can improve the experience from other aspects, such as improving the touch and smells, and using different background sounds… The important point of the immersive experience is not trying to convince the users that they become a part of the virtual environment (that is depersonalization and empathy to the people’s lives at that time), rather, the immersive experience should let the users believe that they are the part of the virtual environment. Not become a part of it, but believe they are a part of it from the beginning.