OSMOSE: Notes on being in Immersive virtual space

Abstract This paper discusses the original artistic intentions behind the immersive virtual environment OSMOSE (1995). The strategies employed to manifest them include the use of an embodying user interface of breath and balance and a visual aesthetic based on transparency and spatial ambiguity. The paper examines the medium of immersive virtual space as a spatio‐temporal arena in which mental constructs of the world can be given three‐dimensional form and be kinaesthetically explored through full‐body immersion and interaction. Throughout, comparisons are made between OSMOSE and conventional design approaches to virtual reality. The tendency of such approaches to reinforce the West's historic devaluation of nature and the body is also discussed. It is suggested that this medium can potentially be used to counteract such tendencies. In the case of OSMOSE, an experiential context is constructed in which culturally learned perceptual/conceptual boundaries are osmotically dissolved, causing conventional assumptions about interior, exterior, mind, body and nature to be questioned by the immersed participant.