About Virtual Environments as Communication Technologies of Faith
| Authors | Kay, John F.; Lackey, Stephanie; Shumaker, Randall |
|---|---|
| Date | 2016 |
| Proceedings | Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality |
| Publisher | Springer International Publishing |
| Place | Cham |
| Vol / Pages | pp. 691-701 |
| ISBN | 978-3-319-39907-2 |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-3-319-39907-2_66 |
| Language | en |
Type: Conference Paper
Tags: Christianity, Communication, Communication technologies, Faith, Virtual environments
Abstract
His paper analyzes virtual environments (V.E.’s) as possible technologies for the communication of the belief system known as the Christian faith. V.E. technologies are computer-generated, 3D-appearing, multi-sensorial, interactive, graphical simulations. Some V.E.’s, such as virtual reality (V.R.), some augmented reality (A.R.), and desktop digital games with head-mounted displays (H.M.D.’s), are immersive technologies, while other V.E.’s, such as desktop digital games without H.M.D.’s and some A.R., are not immersive technologies. These technologies may be considered communication technologies because they communicate or represent reality. The faith that has been, and can be, communicated is multi-dimensional and consists of sensory information, thoughts, and a variety of emotions. The first-hand study of immersive V.E.’s, although not the “dominant means of communication” as the bound book has been for Christianity (Lundby 2013), might be able to reveal that V.E.’s can communicate dimensions of the faith that earlier technologies have been unable to do.