The Virtual Tourist. Image as Destination

Abstract

The desire to travel and to see other places, inherent to human beings, has always meant more than a matter of mere survival. Our ability to venture ourselves, varying our position in the world, is a way of adopting another point of view and broadening our perspective. Javier Luri Rodríguez, a researcher on the theory of the image and expert on immersive images, departs from the concept of virtual tourism to analyse the different ways of travelling through the visual spectacles that modernity has generated up to the brand-new virtual worlds. Although the desire to transport oneself through images has existed since ancient times, immersive and visual virtualization devices have multiplied and become significantly more sophisticated in recent decades. Immersive digital environments are gaining relevance in areas such as entertainment, education, and video games, and, seemingly, they will soon be gaining relevance in all professional fields. We are told that the future will be dominated by virtual reality along with 3600 images. In The Virtual Tourist. Image as Destination, the author analyses these visual devices as an uninterrupted and hermetic immersive experience that promises infinite spaces and destinations.