Characteristics of virtual reality cinema through the theory of Vilém Flusser

Abstract

This paper study on the commonalities between today's virtual reality films and the Lumière brothers' films from the late 19th century. This study found two similarities. The first is ‘information overload’ due to the absence of film grammar. This occurs in the process of trying to better understand a new medium to the audience from the perspective of film producers. The second is information overload about novelty. This occurs because of the satisfaction that audiences can gain through new media. Flusser's communication theory was introduced to understand the two similarities between these early films and virtual reality films. Flusser explained that discursive media and conversational media can be divided, and confirmed that the difference between the two depends on the characteristics of the medium, but also on how the medium is used or how the sender constructs the medium. In the end, it was confirmed that virtual reality movies have characteristics that are close to the characteristics of a conversational medium, such as interactivity, as an ontological characteristic, and at the same time, they also have the characteristics of a discursive medium due to the characteristics of theater-based films that tell stories. Virtual reality cinema, currently a new form of film, were similar to discursive media due to the characteristics discussed above. In order to overcome this phenomenon and create a grammar unique to virtual reality films, it is necessary to combine these two capabilities rather than emphasizing one of the two characteristics of virtual reality (discursive and conversational). In addition, early films and similarly, it would be a way to solve the phenomenon called ‘information overload’ that appears in virtual reality cinema.