Unframing Aesthetics

The world of the image has traditionally been considered as different and separate from the real world. This separation has been ensured by some kind of framing device, be it the pedestal of a statue, the frame of a painting, or the cinema screen. However, recent developments in image-making techniques have resulted in the production of hyper-realistic, immersive, and interactive virtual environments that make the threshold between image and reality blur, thus eliciting in the experiencer a strong feeling of being incorporated into a quasi-real world. This book introduces the concept of “un-framing” as a key to understanding this radically new iconoscape.