Text and the reader
'The most gifted writers are those who manipulate the memory sets of the reader in such as rich fashion that they create within the mind of the reader an entire world that resonates with the readers own real emotions. The events are merely taking place on the page, in print, but the emotions are real.' Tom Wolfe
VR and immersion
'Immersion, in VR, is a technology induced phenomenon, the experience of being surrounded by data. Immersion in a book, by contrast, is a purely mental phenomenon, the product of an act of imagination.' Marie-Laure Ryan
Immersion
'The question isn't whether the created world is as real as the physical world, but whether the created world is real enough for you to suspend your disbelief for a period of time. This is the same mental shift that happens when you get wrapped up in a good novel or become absorbed in playing a computer game.' Pimentel and Teixeira, Virtual Reality, 15)
A book and technology
If on a Winter's Night a Traveller - opening the book "You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If Not On a Winters Night A Traveller. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other though. Let the world around you fade... Find the most comfortable position: seated, stretched out, or lying flat... Adjust the light so you won't strain your eyes. Do it now, because once you're absorbed into reading there will be no budging you"
However the issue with e-reading is that distraction is likely, eye strain is common and this makes reading all more difficult and hard to fall into that mental shift of absorption.
The imagination obsolete
Popularity of multisensory immersion art. Aldous Huxley warns that this would extinguish critical sense and render the imagination obsolete. (Brave New World)
Creating an immersive environment is thought to be achieved by occupying all senses, however as Aldous Huxley warns, thus would extinguish critical sense and render the imagination obsolete.
Marie-Laure Ryan suggests four degrees of absorbtion into the act of reading; the first being concerntration where the reader remaisn vulnerable to the distracting stimuli of external reality, second is imaginative involvement where the reader is transported to the textual world whilst remaining tentative to the quality of the performance of the Author, entrancement is the third in which the reader is so immersed in the textual world that the external world disappears, however they are still aware in the back of their mind that the textual world is not reality, and lastly is addiction where to remain pleasurable, the experience of being lost in a book must be temporary and remain distinct from addiction, where you seek and escape from reality in the textual world, or cannot distinguish the textual world from the actual world.
Four degrees of absorption in the act of reading:
1. Concentration. The reader remains vulnerable to the distracting stimuli of external reality.
2. Imaginative involvement. The reader is transported to the textual world whilst remaining tentative to the quality of the performance of the Author.
3. Entrancement. The reader is so immersed in the textual world that the external world disappears, however they are still aware in the back of their mind that the textual world is not reality.
4. Addiction. To remain pleasurable, the experience of being lost in a book must be temporary and remain distinct from addiction, where you seek and escape from reality in the textual world, or cannot distinguish the textual world from the actual world.
"Once, the power to automatically capture and duplicate the world was the sole privilege of the mirror; now this power has been emulated by technological media. The world is being filled by representations that share the virtuality of the specular image" Baudrillard
The Death of the Author, Roland Barthes
Any given text has multiple meaning as each person that reads it gives different meaning to it. What is important is the experience of the reader, not the author who wrote it.
To include in conclusion:
In conclusion an e-book may not hold the same value of that of a book, however it gives chance to explore new forms of writing and experiences for the reader. Roland Barthes in The Death Of The Author, theorises that any given text has multiple meaning as each person that reads it gives different meaning to it. He suggests that the importance is the experience of the reader, not the author who wrote it. With this idea, using technology, the structure of the text could be experimented with, adapted for the reader to explore different meanings of writing. It creates a gateway for the designer to explore how the reader experiences.
Presence and the Aura of Meaningful Places
Aura means the presence of an object/place.
'Presence describes the mental state of the user in response to being immersed in a virtual application.'
'If someone gave you a perfect copy of the Mona Lisa (and told you it was a copy) you would not react to it in the same way you would to the real painting.' Link to Benjamin Walter.
To create more presence in technology, we should create a presence with MR.
'Media experience do not in general have an aura, but can leverage or enhance the aura a person feels.'
Walter Benjamin
Printed matter has an ‘Aura’ to it, which mechanically reproduced matter cannot obtain. 'Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: Its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be.' 'The technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.' 'The work of art reproduced becomes the work or art designed for reproducibioity.'
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