Art as Experience, Experience as Art: Towards a VR Theory of VR

One the earliest debates in the emerging field of game studies was centered on differing analytic approaches to the study of games. The so-called narratology vs. ludology debate pitted those who saw games as extensions of narrative-driven media against those who saw games as a unique medium that should be studied on its own terms. While the divide between the narratologists and the ludologists has mostly disappeared, the debate helped to legitimize game studies within the academy and establish games as a distinct object of study deserving of its own analytic frameworks.

As virtual reality experiences increasingly become more commonplace, a similar debate has begun to emerge. In studying VR experiences, what analytic frameworks should be employed to understand them?

Although humanities-based scholarship concerning VR experiences is still in its infancy, what little has been written has often approached VR through the lens of narratology. This paper argues that such approaches do not heed the lessons learned in the early debate between narratology and ludology in game studies. VR, as an experiential medium, is unique from earlier, more heavily narrative-based media such as film and should be studied on its own terms rather than understood through the lens of theory borrowed from other media.

Drawing on Dewey’s understanding of aesthetic experience, as well as my own research-creation practice, I argue that VR should be analyzed through the way it generates meaning through the embodied interaction of the participant and the virtual environment rather than through any narrative-centric framework.