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PEOPLE & ARTSSaturday 12 March 2016
Never tried virtual reality?
Here’s what it’s like
In this Jan. 6, 2016 file photo, people react as they wear Sam- FRAZIER MOORE this two-minute interlude, to a table or a person, but
sung Gear VR goggles at CES International in Las Vegas. VR is AP Television Writer it blinks awake, clambers no farther, as if these ob-
a habitat of countless possibilities, an exhilarating refuge that NEW YORK (AP) — It doesn’t to its feet, spots me and, jects were really in my way.
yanks one from the sidelines and thrusts them into the action. take a high-tech headset staring me right in the face, And unlike many VR expe-
to see that virtual reality is takes a curious sniff. riences, this one is open-
Associated Press the rage. It’s being touted These adventures pale in ended. I am free to linger in
as the future for all things wonder to Cirque du So- this otherworldly, painterly
sensory, from games to film leil’s “Kurios: Cabinet of Cu- realm to my heart’s con-
and television, from story- riosities,” which sweeps me tent. At this cafe, there is
telling to visualart. into a wondrous spectacle. no last call. And I am in no
My response as a television Beautiful and dazzlingly hurry to leave.
critic — and as a dyed-in- weird, the dozen-and-a- Why would I? Despite the
the-wool TV viewer — is to half performers cavort on possible onset of a head-
ask what this all means to a stage where they ac- ache or queasiness (noth-
me. cept me as a spellbound ing comes without a price,
I am not typically an early intruder. They put on quite including this technology
adopter. My beat as a a show. in its infant stage), VR is a
journalist isn’t newfangled Or, maybe more accu- habitat of countless possi-
gadgetry. I’m a TV-centric rately, many shows. As I bilities, an exhilarating ref-
content guy, scrambling share their 360-degree uge that yanks me from the
to keep up with the torrent space, where and what I sidelines and thrusts me into
of programs that, however look at is up to me. I am free the action.
more plentiful and varied to bob and swivel my head
their providers, still contain to fix my gaze on anyone Could VR ever become
themselves in two dimen- or anything. I literally get the default mode for its au-
sions. to call the shots. And after dience? I can imagine a
a half-dozen viewings, with time when immersion in VR
Even so, VR seems a force my attention leap-frogging might be as normal a state
to be reckoned with. So I from one direction to an- of self-imposed isolation as
grabbed a Samsung Gear other, I still can’t take in all earbuds piping music from
VR headset for a maiden the revelry. an iPod is now.
voyage. If joining a famed enter- But more pertinent to me, a
Virtual reality is the link to tainment troupe is remark- television guy, is this ques-
an alternate reality, and in- able, an even bigger blast tion: As VR evolves as tech-
stantly I’m all in! For exam- is gaining entry to a paint- nology and art, what will
ple, I find that a wooded, ing by Vincent Van Gogh. be its impact on the act of
birds-twittering forest on Thanks to a VR reimagin- vegging out with old-fash-
a sunny day is a far more ing of Van Gogh’s 1888 ioned TV?
agreeable environment “The Night Cafe,” I can Television has long reigned
than my stuffy apartment. take my place within the as the province of the
And that’s even before Re- brushstrokes of the Café couch potato, viewing
ese Witherspoon appears de la Gare and its scatter- passively while free to do
over a rise and, puffing with ing of tables and chairs, bil- other things: answer email,
her backpack, rests herself liard table and lone patron fix a snack or just nurse a
on a nearby rock. come to life. beer. But lost in VR’s altered
In character from her But there’s more to explore state, I could easily miss my
2014 film “Wild,” she is be- than the single room the mouth when trying to take
draggled but radiant and painting has immortalized. a sip. VR demands full com-
seems close enough and Through a doorway in the mitment.
real enough to bother for corner, I can stray into a Could be, as VR comes of
a sip of her water. Alas, all never-before-seen side age, television will become
too quickly Witherspoon room, where a pianist plays not quite old hat, but in-
resumes her solitary trek, a melancholy tune and — stead what radio became
vanishing through trees in lo and behold — Vincent with TV’s birth: an atmo-
the opposite direction too himself sits listening while spheric add-on, just one
absorbed in her odyssey to meditatively smoking his part of the everyday senso-
have paid me any notice. pipe. ry mosaic. Similarly, TV, with
But a dinosaur does. With Unlike VR video captured its grip on public conscious-
“Jurassic World: Apatosau- with stationary 360-degree ness downgraded, might
rus,” I am in a different kind cameras, this Van Gogh be recast as an omnipres-
of forest, stationed a few tribute is more like a video ent supplement to real life.
yards from a colossal doz- game, letting me interact Not supplementing, but
ing reptile sprawled on the more authentically with my supplanting real life: That’s
forest floor. Then, during surroundings. I can step up what VR aims to do.q
