Human Bodies, Virtual Spaces

A study that offers a re-theorizing of virtual reality through the lens of embodiment and the human experience, rather than the usual approach which ties theory to current technology and/or hardware capabilities.

This book offers a corrective to the trend in virtual reality studies that over-emphasizes the role of hardware technology and visual/auditory fidelity as the sole means of establishing users' sense of presence, and instead offers a more holistic, embodied, and human-focused means of understanding presence (through immersion, interactivity, and imagination) in virtual reality. The main questions tackled in this book address the role of the body in VR experiences, and how our bodies' navigation of these spaces influence users' sense of presence in such experiences.