Another hour, another post...

In relation to what I just said in my last post, I was thinking about Visual Intelligence's conception of the way in which TV's are not photographs because the images on them are fleeting things, only to be seen for a split second before the next image is displayed for the audience, and how the TV can allow Forrest Gump to photo-realistically meet John F. Kennedy (57). Just like we have discussed in class, Ann Berry discusses the possible issues with being able to create fake realities for people to watch; she discusses how they could be used to manipulate people. What I wonder is what will happen is when we can do more than watch a prettily made lie on TV, but rather when we'll be able to interact with them in a videogame or virtual reality setting. What happens when the difference, expereince wise, in interacting with a real person, and interacting with a fake representation, is nil.

Audiences, to a certain degree, are already becoming somewhat prepared for this eventuality, as in text-based speech we already expect that people can fake their identity, and their purpose online. Heh, they can even fake a video link, all it takes is a is a decent understanding of the technological processes. Visual experiences are problematict, we tend to, as Barry points out, believe the News because it is the News, but also because it is visual. What happens when the visual is a much more immersive experience? How would this extremely hot (as in Marshall McLuhan's meaning of the word) medium push viewers to believe in new ways, and therefore have to learn a new technological savvy in order to understand how easy or difficult it might be to dupe the interfacer? Being in the middle of a news scene, and not having it seemingly framed in the same way TV is now (with the four corners of the TV pointing your angle of view in a single direction), would make it harder for people to question a news report, to challenge its validity. We would have to understand new frames of reference and therefore think of things not in terms of the TV screen framing, but the placement of the virtual device as a frame itself.

You get the idea...

Wow....this turned into a rather long post of nearly speculative fiction.

Well, hope you enjoy.

To a degree, this is probably already possible (though prohibitively expensive)