Coextensive space: virtual reality and the developing relationship between the body, the digital and physical space

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) has traditionally required external sensors placed around a designated play space. In contrast, more recent wired and wireless systems, such as the Oculus Rift S (released in March 2019) and the Oculus Quest (released in May 2019) use cameras located on the outside of these devices to monitor their physical position. Users can now mark out a physical space that is then digitally tracked within their display. Once a play space has been established, users are alerted if they come close to breaching this boundary by the visual inclusion of a grid. Should this threshold be breached, the headset display shifts to an image of the surrounding concrete environment. We contend that physical space is increasingly being incorporated into the digital space of VR in a manner that meaningfully differs from older systems. We build our argument in the following way. First, the article explores how theories surrounding VR have implicated only a limited relationship with physical space. Second, the article introduces the concept of coextensive space as a way of understanding the developing relationship between the physical, digital and concrete reality enacted by current VR systems.

Geography and virtual reality

“…More recent VR HMD, such as Oculus Quest, allows ‘6 Degrees of Freedom’ (6DOF), and are not tethered to a personal computer. Saker and Frith (2020) show that such systems now mean physical space is increasingly being incorporated into the digital space to create what they term coextensive space ‘a symbiotic relationship between physical and digital that is increasingly proximate, extensive and transformative’ (Saker & Frith, 2020, p. 1436).…”

“I Want to See People’s Reactions to the Selfies”: A Lefebvrian Analysis of the Impact of Social Networking Sites on Physical, Mental, and Emotional Functioning

“…are continuously producing, packaging, re-packaging, recording, discarding, modifying, transferring, disseminating, accessing, and using information." In contrast, we contend that physical space is concrete and separate from the immersed VS (Saker & Frith, 2020); it is the space in which all material objects are located and all events occur (Zlatanova et al, 2020). Further, we agree with Kosari and Amoori (2018), who stated that virtual and physical spaces have the capacity to shape each other, that as users switch between the two spaces, "they live in a blended synthetic Third Space that has the characteristics" (p. 181) of virtual and physical spaces.…”

Virtual reality and celebrity humanitarianism: Rashida Jones in Lebanon

“…New developments in VR include the use of physical space to render a more “present” experience. Rather than seeing physical space as an obstacle to be surmounted in the quest for “presence,” new advances seek to co-opt it (Saker and Frith, 2020).…”