Multiplying Worlds: Romanticism, Modernity, and the emergence of Virtual Reality

该项目认为，虚拟现实首次出现在浪漫主义时期（1780-1830）。此外，它还认为，虚拟现实在当代的突出地位，在很大程度上依赖于源自这一早期时期的关于虚拟的假设。为了确定这个可能是数字时代最重要现象的原因，该项目专注于在启蒙运动计划中生产虚拟现实，用于管理现实，流行娱乐和浪漫主义。它将对关于浪漫主义和（后）现代性的辩论，以及我们对塑造我们接受计算机技术的文化历史的理解做出重大贡献。

This project contends that virtual reality first emerges during the Romantic Period (1780-1830). Further, it argues that the contemporary prominence of virtual reality rests to a surprising degree on assumptions about the virtual that derive from this earlier period. To establish this aetiology of perhaps the most important phenomenon of the digital age, the project focuses on the production of virtual reality in Enlightenment schemes for managing the real, popular entertainment, and Romanticism. It will make a major contribution to debates concerning Romanticism and (post)modernity, and to our understanding of the cultural histories that shape our reception of computer technologies.