Phenomenology of VR Images: Phantasy, Image and Perception

The purpose of the article is to offer a phenomenological description of VR images and their experience. In the first section I briefly present the peculiar features of these kinds of images; in the second section, I compare VR images with phantasms, especially in the light of the idea of “presentification” [Vergegenwärtigung], and then I discuss the reality or unreality of VR image-objects; the third section elaborates an analysis of VR images according to the notions of image object [Bildobjekt], and discusses the issue of “presence” both of the representing image and the user; finally, in the last section, I focus on the correlated experience of the subject, which I describe as a switching between image consciousness and perceptual apprehension.