From Immersion to Co-Presence: The Media Turn and Content Structures of VR Art in the Age of Spatial Computing
Spatial computing is shifting virtual reality art from fully virtual experience toward virtual‑physical co‑presence. Through conceptual genealogy and case analysis, this article examines the media turn and the transformation of content structures in virtual reality art under the conditions of spatial computing. It finds that the computability of space has given rise to a new media logic characterized by the transparency of the virtual‑physical threshold, spatial coupling, and embodied interaction. On this basis, the article proposes a three‑tier "surface‑volume‑field" framework of spatial content ecology. The framework reveals how planar windows, three‑dimensional objects, and immersive environments organize narrative, thereby providing a theoretical reference and forward‑looking guidance for future creative practice and innovation in the narrative paradigms of virtual reality art.
[1] Fischer-Lichte, E. (2008). The transformative power of performance: A new aesthetics. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203894989
[2] Greenwold, S. (2003). Spatial computing [Master's thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. https://acg.media.mit.edu/people/simong/thesis/SpatialComputing.pdf
[3] Hackl, C., & Cronin, I. (2024). Spatial computing: An AI-driven business revolution. Wiley.
[4] Kilteni, K., Groten, R., & Slater, M. (2012). The sense of embodiment in virtual reality. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 21(4), 373-387. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00124.
[5] Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. MIT Press
[6] Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012). Phenomenology of perception (D. A. Landes, Trans.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203720714 (Original work published 1945)
[7] Milgram, P., & Kishino, F. (1994). A taxonomy of mixed reality visual displays. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, E77-D(12), 1321-1329.
[8] Zhou, W., & Meng, K. (2025). Perceptual machines: The haptic turn of image art in the era of spatial computing. Film Art, (4), 115-124.