Abstract
In comparison to the real world, virtual reality eliminates materiality. The lack of materiality leads to the difference in perception between virtual reality and the real world. First, the perceptual experience in virtual reality lacks the existential thickness of that in the real world. Second, to the perceiver, the entities in virtual reality lack the aura of those in the real world because they lack externality and transcendence. Third, virtual reality is closed and lacks the openness of the spatial and temporal continuity of the perceptual and unfinished experiences in the real world. The analysis of the differences between the two kinds of environmental perception discloses the intrinsic influence of materiality, and at the same time highlights the ecological nature of perceptual activities rooted in the evolutionary history of natural life. Real nature allows possibility for life to grow in its perceptual activities toward the external world, while virtual reality, as a digital fabric, represents the achievement of human mastery over the world. They can never substitute each other, but can only unfold in parallel.
Keywords
virtual reality, environmental perception, materiality, body, nature
First Page
68
Last Page
76
Recommended Citation
Qian, Wang. 2024. "Virtual Reality vs. Real World: On Materiality and the Difference of Environmental Perception." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 44, (5): pp.68-76. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol44/iss5/7
