Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T09:00:49.859Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Virtual worlds, real knowledge: towards a hermeneutics of virtuality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2001

ESPEN AARSETH
ESPEN AARSETH
Affiliation:
Department of Humanistic Informatics, University of Bergen, Ibsengatan 66, Bergen, Norway. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What is the ‘virtual’ and what types of phenomena can be so described? This article tries to establish the context within which this unclear and ideological term can be constructive. Phrases such as ‘virtual community’ are paradoxical and weak, but ‘virtual’ applied cognitively to simulated phenomena, such as virtual worlds or computer games, has validity and represents an alternative discourse mode to narratives and storytelling in conveying experience and knowledge.

Type
Original Article
Information
European Review , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , May 2001 , pp. 227 - 232
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Presented at the Paderborn Conference on Informatics, supported by Westfalia Stiftung: ‘the Virtual Society?’ Programme of ESRC and by the European Commission.