I propose that the heightened emotion and physical sensations of an AR/VR encounter lend themselves to an alignment with the sublime. The concepts of virtuality, digital materiality, the analogue/digital divide, an AR/VR spectrum, essentialism, sensorial sensuality, and avatar instantiation will be explored and conjoined, concluding with an analysis of the desire for experiences of the senses and the natural extension of sensorial engagement-effect. This text explores the body in augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and the implications of essentialism for the virtual sublime. These ideas are considered in light of the philosopher Henri Bergson’s concepts of the absolute and the relative. Yearning therefore becomes a defining attribute of the virtual sublime. The residual effect translates into a longing for a heightened engagement and becomes a yearning for the sensual input of physicality. However, the deficit of AR/VR sensuality due to truncated sensorial input leads to feelings of disaffection and disconnection. This article proposes that the heightened sensations of an AR/VR encounter lend themselves to the sublime. The concepts of virtuality, digital materiality, the analogue/digital divide, an AR/VR spectrum, essentialism, sensorial sensuality and avatar instantiation will be explored, concluding with an analysis of the senses and the natural extension of sensorial engagement-affect. However, instead of being confronted by nature and the immensity of the skies, the virtual sublime references technology, infinitely zooming into microscopic and atomic structures, yet still shaking our sense of our world.
This experience can lead to the danger of being swallowed up by the sublime.
Through AR/VR one negotiates virtual worlds, often with a feeling of endless possibility and sublimity. This article investigates the body, embodiment, augmented, virtual reality (AR/VR) and the virtual sublime.
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