As well as images being used to help create landscapes and surroundings in games, gaming is also being used as a new way to present images. One incredible example of this is the exhibition Mat Collishaw created using Virtual Reality Headsets. He re-created one of the first exhibitions that was held in 1839 by Henry Fox Talbot. Only a small number of people were allowed in at a time and each were given a Virtual Reality headset, and 8 minutes to explore the beautifully re-created exhibition where they could feel like they were touching the photographs and hearing the same noises. The project is called Thresholds and was held at the National Science and Media Museum, in Bradford, West Yorkshire. (Zhang, 2018)
Fig 1. ‘Thresholds’ Virtual Reality exhibition by Mat Collishaw. (Collishaw, U/K)
These images reminded me of one section of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation
In hologram, it is the imaginary aura of the double that is mercilessly tracked, just as it in the history of clones. Similitude is a dream and must remain one, in order for a modicum of illusion and stage of the imaginary to exist. (Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation, 1994, p. 105)
Fig 2. ‘Thresholds’ Virtual Reality exhibition by Mat Collishaw. (Collishaw, U/K)
Fig 3. ‘Thresholds’ Virtual Reality exhibition by Mat Collishaw. (Collishaw, U/K)
This exhibition is a great example of how Virtual Reality and gaming has been combined with photography. Although the two are so different, over the past few years, they have been coming together and they help improve each other. Photography has helped to make gaming more advanced, and gaming equipment has been able to take photography to the next step of presenting.
The photography industry today has been eclipsed by the imagining industry. Photos today are more than just visual artifacts, they are rich with context and data around them, and it’s “everything around them” that is driving the growth in the broader imaging industry today (davidson, 2017)
Davidson speaks about new realities like Snapchat and games such as Pokémon Go and how they change the world. As well as this, he talks about photography’s future and how AR, MR, and VR could change the way we use photography or create and value the imagery we create.