Habitar un cuerpo. Diseñar experiencias emersivas en la época de los espejismos digitales

Abstract

In a world immersed in virtuality, ecstatic with images and visual stimuli, both the perception of otherness and one’s own identity tend to undergo alterations to adapt to the environment. The emergence of virtual meeting spaces, such as blogs, forums and social networks, consolidated the massification of an extremely seductive and hitherto unthinkable figure: the digital avatar; the possibility of adopting, personalizing, or shaping one’s own virtual identity and, with it, new ways of understanding links. Faced with these two realities (virtual and immaterial) the subject would seem to find himself split, in permanent conflict between his projected and self-perceived image. The question that then arises and sets this article in motion is the following: to what extent does the iconic representation, the digital surrogate, determine the way in which individuals perceive themselves and connect with others? Finally, based on the tools provided by Transitional Design, appealing to notions of image archeology and philosophy as theoretical support and framework, this work aims to investigate the level of impact that immersive and emersive experiences have in the identity construction and linking of individuals, as a starting point to think, from the design, more friendly virtual environments, reducing negative impacts and enhancing their positive contributions.