In this chapter I start with a brief overview of how other academics have structured the actual and the virtual, and then describe the model I have used for structuring actuality and virtuality, as well as fictional narratives.
There are several models for conceptualizing the virtual, such as Popper’s Worlds 1, 2 and 3 (Popper, 1979), Nusselder’s (2009) domains matrix, cyberspace and
interface, and Stone’s (1991) four epochs. However, the models from Popper and Nusselder are general and abstract, and therefore not of much help for structuring a poetics of virtuality with focus on fictional representations of virtuality. Stone’s four epochs are primarily a device for structuring a historical perspective.
In his essay Cyberspace: Some Proposals, Michael Benedikt (1991) attempts to use geometrical and mathematical arguments in order to suggest a framework for how to construct cyberspace. He grounds his arguments in “natural, physical space” and loosely organizes his reasoning under the “essentially topological rubrics” (p.132) Dimensionality, Continuity, Curvature, Density and Limits. Benedikt also
formulates seven design principles. Some of these are relevant, for example the Principle of Indifference, stating that the perceived realness of the virtual world partly depends on how indifferent the world is to a particular user. The Principle of Transit suggests that it should take time and effort to move from one point to another. Both these principles are based on the belief that cyberspace should mimic the limitations of actual space. However, much of Benedikt’s reasoning is more relevant for information visualization than virtuality; he investigate different methods for mapping data to spatial and non-spatial dimensions, and what he writes about the virtual is nowadays outdated and irrelevant. Writing in 1991, he was still trapped in the Gibsonian idea of a three-dimensional Internet, and his
proposals circled around that vision.15
Michael Heim (1993) proposes seven essences of virtual reality that summarize different aspects of the virtual.
• Simulation – primarily the simulation in form of realistic computer graphics • Interaction – the interaction is often based on real-life logic
• Artificiality – the virtual is artificial, but Heim warns us from using artificiality as a definition, since artificiality covers everything ever constructed by man. • Immersion – primarily the hardware and software aspects of immersion • Telepresence – the user’s virtual presence in an actual or virtual environment • Full-body Immersion – immersion provided by head-mounted displays or a
CAVE system
• Networked Communication – networked computers make it possible to meet in the virtual environments
Several of Heim’s essences are relevant for a poetics of virtuality. However, the proposed essences do not say much about the ontological structure of virtuality.
What now follows is my own model for how virtuality is ontologically constructed, with a special focus on how it can be inserted into the framing narrative of fiction. This is the model upon which my own poetics of virtuality is
built.16 The terms used throughout this poetics are highlighted in upper case in the
following discussion. Typical for the studied narratives are that they hold both a framing narrative and an insert narrative. The framing narrative often is the actual world (“reality”), while the insert narrative is the events taking place inside one or more virtual worlds. In for example The Matrix, the framing narrative is the
dystopic world where humans and machines battle for survival, while the insert narrative is the virtuality, the simulation, where most human minds are imprisoned and where the heroes of the story use super-natural abilities to fight artificial
intelligence programs. The distinction between framing and insert narrative is not always clear-cut. In for example The Thirteenth Floor we only see the actual world during the last few minutes of the whole movie, while in eXistenZ and Avalon it is not clear if we ever see a glimpse of the actual world.
Figure 2. The general topology of how virtuality relates to fiction and reality.
16 Note that this description concerns movies where the virtual is a part of the plot, the diegetic
world of the movie. The concept of virtual cinematography is not related to this, since virtual cinematography is a production method where much of the footage of the movie is shot within a virtual environmental.
Figure 2 on the previous page schematizes the general topology of actuality, fiction and virtuality. REALITY is the total sum of everything that is, including all mental constructs we create such as fantasies, illusions and so on. Reality encompasses both truth and lie, because even if a lie is untrue it still exists in the form of a lie. In
the same way fiction is included in reality.17
In this reality the world is split up in different ways. One is FICTION, for example stories, tales, and other fictional accounts in literature, movies and games. The term diegetic means the “fictional world of the story” (Bordwell, 1985, p.22), the world of the narrative (Dudley, 1984). For example, music can be diegetic (being played in the fictional world and heard by the fictive characters), or non- diegetic (added as a layer outside the fictive world, only for the audience to hear).
However, fiction and diegetic are not the same thing (Genette, 1980).18 The
opposite of fiction is often referred to as reality, the real world and so on, but in my model I use the term REAL-LIFE as the opposite to FICTION. Real-life and fictional characters, events or places can co-exist inside the diegetic world of a narrative, as illustrated already in the title of for example The Hunchback of Notre- Dame. The hunchback is fictional, while Notre-Dame is a real-life cathedral. The Saturn V rocket booster is an example of real-life technology, while the light saber is fictional technology. Note that the boundary between fiction and real-life is blurred. Real-life humans such as Abraham Lincoln can be used in fictional stories, for example portraying him as a vampire hunter.
Another sub-set of reality is VIRTUALITY. In everyday speech virtuality is often opposed to physical reality or the real world, but I see virtuality as a subset of reality, and instead oppose virtuality with ACTUALITY. It is important to note that FICTION and VIRTUALITY are parallel sub-sets of REALITY, free to
separate or combine in different ways.19 Also, REAL-LIFE and ACTUALITY
normally collapse into each other, but it is still important to consider them as two separate concepts when discussing different combinations of fiction and virtuality. The separation of real-life and actuality, for example, explains how the fictional character Neo in The Matrix can escape from the virtual to the actual, without you having the chance of running into him in the street (since he is fictional and you are real-life).
By forming a 2x2 matrix with the opposing pairs actual–virtual and fiction–real- life, a model is constructed that can hold all the sub-sets of reality that will be
discussed in this poetics. The combination REAL-LIFE / ACTUAL is the ordinary world around us. From this position you can go one step in either two directions.
17 The reality that is discussed here can be an external, physical, independent reality, or an inner
mental construct. The reality concept we employ does not matter for the model.
18 The alignment of fiction and diegetic break up in for example a documentary; a documentary
movie holds a diegetic world but the story is considered non-fictional.
19 An architectural virtual reality model of a planned building is virtual, but not fictional, just as an
architectural drawing is not fictional. A romantic comedy is a fictional story, but without the virtual (usually). However, a romantic comedy could be narrated in a virtual reality world or in a
You can enter fiction, where narratives move in a fictional version of the actual. This is FICTIONAL / ACTUAL, or just ordinary fiction – for example, Robinson Crusoe is actually shipwrecked in his diegetic world, but the story is made up, a fantasy. You can go the other directions and immerse yourself in a virtuality such as a computer game world or a virtual reality display. This is the REAL-LIFE /
VIRTUAL, that is, virtual worlds that we actually can enter, experience and interact with. The fourth combination, two steps away from the REAL-LIFE / ACTUAL corner is what I will be focused on in the poetics of virtuality, the FICTIONAL / VIRTUAL. These are virtual worlds that we can not enter because they are part of a fictional account. The Matrix in the move The Matrix is such a virtual world. It is a virtuality wrapped in a fiction.
This is a general model and it can be expanded and made more complex, as will be illustrated by a few examples.