Out of Reach Otherwise. Perspectives About Geographical Experiences in Virtualized Spaces and Places

Abstract

Recent developments in geographic information, simulation, and virtualization technologies make it possible to digitally recreate various geographical contexts through immersive solutions. As the implementation costs for virtual experience-generating systems decrease, their overall accessibility and relative performance increase. For this reason, such tools are becoming popular in some geographical applications. This is true both in scientific research and in teaching/public dissemination. Representations of this kind may require the coordinated use of various technologies such as advanced geographic information systems, simulators, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR). The literature highlights that associated or integrated uses of these systems are continuously developing, in a wide variety of applications for different purposes. Some “virtual geographic experiences” could show users, in varying degrees of sensory and emotional impact, remote and inaccessible sites that are, for various reasons, beyond their reach; or show them events that have occurred in the past or could possibly occur in the future. These innovative forms of geographic representation maintain, transfigured, some typical characteristics of more traditional forms. Like those, these too are based on an interpretive model of spaces and places depending on a selection of themes; all phenomena related to each theme must be presented in a reduced, approximate, and symbolic form. Like traditional representations, for these new types as well, the effectiveness and cultural value of the “final product” can be influenced by various factors, such as the rigorous identification of complete and reliable data sources, accurate development that considers the programmatic goals of the work, and the level of detail corresponding to them. To these traditional problems, new ones are associated, that geographers are facing for the first time. Among them, the issue of the user’s “sense of presence” in the virtual place, which VR and AR can trigger if they provide, through adequate design and appropriate technical solutions, a satisfactory level of “immersion.” It would be theoretically possible to offer virtual geographic experiences at different levels of complexity: from the mere geometric representation of a space, useful for clarifying its material nature, to higher-level qualitative renderings that could trigger a symbolic perception; up to the point of reconstructing or at least hypothesizing the immaterial factors on which crucial decisions, cultural dynamics, or emotions may take place in geographic contexts that do not exist in concrete reality. This work aims only to provide food-for-thought on new possible paths for geographic representation. It is addressed to scholars who look with interest at the possibilities of using innovative technologies for human geography-related applications, even if they have not yet gained in-depth experience of the new tools. Such insights will be presented based on examples from the scientific literature and/or derived from practical laboratory work.