Abstract
In recent years, there has been an intensive development of virtual reality technology and social VR platforms. Social VR becoming new realms of human existence, and transforming into dynamic spaces for a variety of activities, including global social interactions, gaming, cultural and educational events. Social VR platforms are designed for users utilizing immersive head-mounted displays (HMDs). Body tracking systems integrated into HMDs expand the possibilities for human interaction in virtual environments, fostering new embodied phenomena such as dance, phantom sensations, embodied communication, and bodily aggression. Physical bodies and spaces become entangled with their digital counterparts, participating in activities within virtual settings, thereby necessitating a paradigm shift in anthropological research in VR, which traditionally treated digital and physical spaces as separate realms within the framework of digital dualism. The purpose of this study is to introduce an original posthumanist and postdualistic approach to anthropological research in social VR. This approach is rooted in new materialism, particularly Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory. It emphasizes the entanglements between humans and non-humans (e.g., devices, interfaces, digital bodies). Within this perspective, I conceptualize VR users as cyborg assemblages, arising from the intra-actions between humans, technologies, and digital bodies, highlighting the role of non-human entities in shaping their hybrid embodiment.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Civic, Political, and Community Studies
KEYWORDS
SOCIAL VIRTUAL REALITY, POSTHUMANISM, POSTHUMAN, TECHNOLOGY, ASSEMBLAGES, ANTHROPOLOGY
