Intersecting the Virtual and the Real: Space in Interactive Media Installations

To experience space is to engage with it through one's presence, to possess it by being immersed in it, in the way one possesses space when inside a room, in a park, or on the streets. Computer generated virtual, immersive environments create the illusion of space by simulating visual clues such as boundary delineations which allows us to perceive directionally and to circulate. Internet space is a metaphoric space accesses through a technological window, linking individuals in real-time across geographical territories. In the process of interacting with the digital world, we can consider real space as the site where our bodies come into contact with the technological devices by which we experience virtual space. Social space then, becomes the site where we gather to watch each other come [End Page 105] into contact with the technological devices used to engage with virtual space.