Denying the Environment

04.03.22 / 05.10.19

Television, movies, computers, and video games – interestingly they deny the reality of the environment in which they are placed. There is no attempt to ingratiate their forms into any cultural context…except perhaps by gamers. They do not affirm the environment in which they exist by making their forms integral to experiencing it. Rather, they ignore the environmental context. In fact, they actually challenge the reality and value of the environmental context in which they exist because they do not integrate into it and they offer an alternative within the screen. This is a functional strategy that de-legitimizes the physical environment. In doing so the ephemeral environment within the PC or TV or other media device feels more legitimately real. Through this process the virtual seems to feel as real as the devalued physical environment. This is troubling because the virtual is not as real as the physical and because the sensory stimulation afforded by the virtual is impoverished when compared to that of the real and it does a disservice to people to deaden their senses in order to make the virtual seem more real.