Abstract: Since the revival of virtual reality (VR) in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the technology has been used by a series of preexisting media (cinema, video games, theatre, dance, etc.), all while searching for an identity of its own. Following André Gaudreault and Philippe Marion's concept of the “double birth of media,” this chapter analyses the many births of VR: first as a technology, and second, eventually, as a medium with its own language, generic conventions, and institutional recognition. More specifically, while this chapter is interested in applying the “double birth” model to VR, it also looks at the way artists working in the cinematographic tradition have appropriated this immersive technology. Finally, it looks forward at what a medium of VR might look like that is not limited to preestablished media.

Keywords: technology, medium, intermediality, genealogy

Virtual Reality (VR) is a great many things. What it is definitely not, at the time of writing, is either dying or already dead, as so many clickbait headlines would have us believe. In fact, since VR's revival in the second decade of the twenty-first century, tales of its demise have been both ceaseless and greatly exaggerated. In this chapter, I want to refocus our attention; not on VR's death, but rather on its recent rise from the dead and on the period of gestation it has undergone since. What makes me describe the current rise in VR's popularity as a “revival”? When and in what manner was it first born? And, finally, what can we learn from the forces currently shaping VR's renaissance in the 2010s and 2020s?

In order to answer these questions, this chapter adopts a genealogical approach, the general goal of which is to highlight some of the forces currently shaping the identity of VR as an up-and-coming medium. Doing so requires that we first define what VR is, a task that will have us go over the tumultuous history of this technology in search of an identity. Following André Gaudreault and Philippe Marion's concept of the “double birth” of media, I then approach VR from two distinct perspectives: firstly, from the point of view of its technologies and their affordances and, secondly, from the perspective of intermediality.