Immersion – Then and Now
In response to the questions posed by Mez last week, I have to admit I find it difficult to answer constructively.
The artists of antiquity and renaissance clearly had technological limitations compared with today. The techniques employed were based mostly around different techniques in painting. For example the “villa dei misteri” is an example of an illusion space, surrounding 360 degrees of vision using pure painted artwork.
Wide Shot - Villa Dei Misteri
The illusion is enhanced by the way in which the characters have been painted. According to Oliver Grau, one of the characters of within the painting is reactive to characters on the adjacent wall. “Drama is lent to the scene by a young maenad who, panicked and anxious, throws her clothes about her with a defensive movement of the hand in a gesture of pathos and ecstasy. She is depicted as being on the brink of leaving the level of the other painted figures, as about to step over the edge of the wall painting, out of the picture, and into the space of the observer. Her gestures and expression are reactions to what is happening on the adjacent right-hand wall; according to the logic of the work, they point across the intervening area, traversing the space of the observer.’ – Oliver Grau
Later on works began to include real world elements of 3D within their illusion spaces. An example of this is Peruzzi’s “Sala delle Prospettive” , painted in 1516-1518. The famous pillars and view of Rome was painted mathmatically to create a true perspective. Within the room however real world elements such as the doors and the walls serve to enhance the illusion of the percieved ilusionary viewpoint.
Sala delle Prospettive
It is very difficult to judge on how effective these methods of illusion are when you have not been inside the actual illusion space. Art however does change based on the person that is viewing it. A classical Baroque portrait would look a lot more realistic to somebody that had never seen a photograph than to somebody who is used to high resolution digital imaging. Logic tells me the same should be said for illusion spaces.
True virtual reality should be more attainable with technology that can create displays closer to our own reality. The moving image alone, even in a similar style to the antiquity and baroque paintings, adds an additional element of realism. The impact of a piece like Sala delle Prospettive would now come from the fact it was created so long ago, before the age of computers and HD image capturing or video projectors. With limited technology they managed to take the first steps into true three dimensional illusion.
However we as a new generation, brought up on high definition video and high resolution imaging, even “3D cinema, won’t react the same as a resident of the 16th Century.
If that wall was a giant flat panel displaying 3D rendered pillars and true 3D depth modeled in, with HDR lighting techniques, animated backdrop, a true day/night system and ambient surround sound, would it be more or less immersive to a modern audience?
