Frederick Kiesler and virtual reality on the modernist stage and screen

Abstract

This essay examines the innovative film and theatrical spaces proposed and designed in the 1920s and 1930s by the Austrian-American architect and stage designer Frederick Kiesler, including the Optophon and the Film Arts Guild Cinema. Within a context in which both theatrical designers and science fiction authors postulated increasingly immersive entertainment environments, Kiesler’s designs brought to the fore complex interfaces between the human body, sensory experience, and modern entertainment technologies for the architectural interior. Kiesler’s ideas, along with those of his contemporaries, predicted the virtual reality spaces of today.