This chapter explores how Virtual Reality (VR) functions as a postdigital interface, activated through participants’ semiotic interaction with virtual environments. A postdigital perspective reveals VR’s potential as an interface where participants’ interactions with VR technology do not only serve as signs of immersion but also unveil deeper techno-material dynamics. Data were collected from nine Ukrainian participants through videographed physical and virtual interactions as they watch the movie Clouds Over Sidra, supplemented by follow-up reflection interviews. The study approaches their kinetic movements within VR as a postdigital experience of rhythmical embodiment and interprets them as multi-layered semiotic modes that imbue VR worlds with diverse meaning potentials. The VR world, in turn, enables the participants to connect their immersive experience to broader socio-political frameworks. Expanding on the concept of ‘postdigital embodiment’, this chapter highlights how empathy is not merely observed but actively experienced, embodied, and renegotiated through digital means. Findings reveal that participants’ kinetic interactions with VR technology evoke embodied meanings that signify (re)orientation and transformation in personal perspectives.

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Postdigital Embodiment of Empathy: Clouds Over Sidra VR

  • Kateryna Pilyarchuk,
  • Rania Magdi Fawzy

摘要

This chapter explores how Virtual Reality (VR) functions as a postdigital interface, activated through participants’ semiotic interaction with virtual environments. A postdigital perspective reveals VR’s potential as an interface where participants’ interactions with VR technology do not only serve as signs of immersion but also unveil deeper techno-material dynamics. Data were collected from nine Ukrainian participants through videographed physical and virtual interactions as they watch the movie Clouds Over Sidra, supplemented by follow-up reflection interviews. The study approaches their kinetic movements within VR as a postdigital experience of rhythmical embodiment and interprets them as multi-layered semiotic modes that imbue VR worlds with diverse meaning potentials. The VR world, in turn, enables the participants to connect their immersive experience to broader socio-political frameworks. Expanding on the concept of ‘postdigital embodiment’, this chapter highlights how empathy is not merely observed but actively experienced, embodied, and renegotiated through digital means. Findings reveal that participants’ kinetic interactions with VR technology evoke embodied meanings that signify (re)orientation and transformation in personal perspectives.