Although many people view virtual reality as a totally new phenomenon, it has its foundations in an unrecognised history of immersive images. Indeed, the search for illusionary visual space can be traced back to antiquity. In this book Oliver Grau shows how virtual art fits into the art history of illusion and immersion. He describes the metamorphosis of the concepts of art and the image and ...
Digital art has become a major contemporary art form, but it has yet to achieve acceptance from mainstream cultural institutions. This work takes a wider view of media art, placing it against the backdrop of art history. It demonstrates that media art cannot be understood by technological details alone; it cannot be understood without its history.