A desire for immersion: the panorama to the Oculus Rift

The paper argues that the experience of viewing 360° historical scenes, either within the "real" environment of the panorama or contemporary "virtual" environments, arises in part from the attraction of the affecting experience. Tracing a line from ancient Greece and Rome through to contemporary technological innovations in Virtual Reality, we explore an idea that what links all of these experiences is not solely a response to social, political or historical streams but a manifestation of a pan-historical human desire for the Dionysiac.
Using texts by theorists as diverse as Nietzsche, Baudrillard, Rheingold, Gibson and Shaviro, we suggest that the impetus for viewing historical scenes within 360° environments is at least partly involved in wanting to go beyond spectatorship and intellectual curiousity, towards presence and intoxication. Attempts to tease out the ideological content of an immersive experience must be done in the context of the craving of audience members for the sensual, the sensational, the being present, and other "illegitimate" forms of impetus to view and experiences. These always already exist alongside and perhaps even before the more legitimate goals of gaining knowledge, historical perspective, education and information.
Charlton and Moar explore the idea that this desire for immersion impels us to submerge ourselves in historical scenes. Thus immersion is the link between panoramas and new panoramic experiences afforded by new technologies such as the Oculus Rift.

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